Balthazar of the BLAC
by desoldeben
Summary: Balthazar is no hero. He has no godlike powers or skills. He has no secret past. He's nobody noteworthy. He had been an orphan, a poor street boy and finally a thief. But now, he won't even stay a thief anymore. He is going to become something infinitely tougher: a student in Beacon. Parallel to Team RWBY storyline.
1. Chapter 1: Unemployment

**DISCLAIMER: Those that ought to belong to others shall belong to their respective owners. Those that ought to belong to me, if any, shall belong to me.**

-x-x-x-x-

Unemployment

Dust, dust, dust. Dust was all the rage these days.

Which kind of sucked, because Schnee Dust Company was a really tough corporation to steal from. Still, a beggar does not get to be choosers and neither did a freelancer thief. If my client wanted a cartload of Schnee Dust, that was what I needed to procure.

'_Breaker, are you quite done there_?' Harmony's voice buzzed into my earpiece and nearly shattered my concentration. I pulled my hands immediately from the security console, afraid of accidentally tripping the alarm.

I swore. 'For Remnant's sake, Harmony. Heard of radio silence? You almost ruined the whole operation here.' Steadying my shaking hands, I returned to the console. I wanted to get this over with, if just to shut Harmony up.

'_If the operation gets thrashed now, it will be your fault, not mine. Hurry the fuck up; it's freezing up here._' The sound of rushing wind could be heard from the other end of the communication.

'All you are doing is sitting on your ass in the airship anyway. Now shut up and let me do this in peace.' Before she could get the last comment, I cut the connection. Soon after, the facility security bended before my will. Aerial gates should now be capable of being opened without requiring the security verification. 'Lovely, I can finally go home.'

'Not if I can help it,' said the voice, feminine, behind me. Aw, shit. I began counting under my breath.

Knowing the protocol, I raised my hands slowly. From my past experiences, I had no doubt that there was a weapon trained on me. Schnee Dust Company security forces did not fuck around.

'Turn around, so I can see you.' At the command, I felt myself ease a little. You see, a veteran never gave a stupid order like that. An enemy that cannot see you is an enemy that has harder time attacking you. Either this woman was a real pro or she was inexperienced. If it was the former case, well, I was already fucked to a point where my situation could not be worse. However, if it was the latter, it meant a chance for me to escape.

Slowly, I complied with her orders. The moment I was face to face with my captor, I took note of details. Pretty was the first thing that popped into my mind, I admit. I quashed that one immediately. I prided myself in being professional. She looked about my age, between sixteen and eighteen. That was a silver lining; she was new to the job after all. There was a rapier in her hands, the tip inches from my throat; a bad news since my light armor had no chance standing up to something like that, not that the armor protected my throat anyway. A glimpse at her security clearance told me she had highest level of clearance. She must have powerful family ties to have those so young.

However, nothing I could see about her could tell me the one thing I was most interested in: how good she was in a fight. It was highly unlikely she had Beacon Academy training; too young for that. The best she could have had was Signal training but that was enough to kick my ass into next week.

Her command was steady, telling me she had confidence if a fight was to ensue. 'Lift your visor; I want to see your face.' Shit, that could prove problematic.

'Are you sure? You are going to let me freely move my hand?' At my question, I could see her waver a bit. My question had shaken her.

'Never mind then. Just keep them high in the air.' Thank goodness, I managed to keep my visor on.

'Yes, ma'am.'

'How many of you are there?' Looked like she has heard my little chat with Harmony. I should really maintain my radio silence next time; if I had a next time.

I was about to feign ignorance when a large explosion rocked overhead on the ceiling, shaking both of us off our feet. Without wasting a moment, I tossed a flashbang grenade between us and switched off my sensors. See, that's why I wanted my visor on. My visions became dark and my auditory senses were blocked.

Once I turned my sensors back on, I took note of the girl's condition. As expected, she was disoriented as all hell, vomiting her insides out. I felt a bit sorry for her; my flashbangs were heavily augmented, designed to stun even those who had training to resist its effect. Still, it was not going to do any permanent damage.

I reconnected my radio. 'You guys were twenty seconds late. It was supposed to be two minutes once my connection went dead.' As I looked up, I could see Harmony making her way down the cable with the magnetic clamp.

'_Don't try to hide your incompetence by yelling at us, Breaker. You know you owe us one.' _I could see Harmony's silhouette blowing me a kiss from the top of the target crate. With great efficiency, she secured the cargo before the tossing me a rope. '_Think you can stomach the ride? I don't want you puking all over the airship floor like the last time.'_

'I had the sensors off this time; let's just get out of here.' I snarled.

Whatever smart comeback Harmony had in store for me – I had no doubt she had one – was quelled by an explosion. The force of the blast was not as great as the one that blew the hole in the ceiling but it still knocked me off my feet.

'What the hell?' As I got to my feet, I realised that the explosions were ongoing. Uh oh.

'_Breaker, it's a fucking chain explosion. Get the hell here!' _For once, there was no hint of jest in Harmony's voice. I guess the situation warranted it.

A chain explosion was a situation when all the dust in the storage began exploding continuously, triggered by each other. It would not stop until there was left but an inferno. In a warehouse this big, that meant a catastrophe.

I ran like my life depended on it and reached Harmony in a record breaking time. The crate began to ascend to the airship. It was unlikely the chain explosion would progress to a stage it could hurt us before we left; while it was devastating near the end, its buildup at the start was rather slow.

In the comfortable embrace of relative safety, my mind was able to perform higher order thinking instead of just processing primitive stuff like "run like hell". Why would a chain explosion occur? It was one of the biggest threats to a dust storage facility and therefore, there should have been thousands of countermeasures in place to ensure it did not happen. Even blowing a hole through the roof should not have been sufficient to trigger it. Unless…

Unless when I disabled the security, I did away with the safety measures as well.

Now, I just felt bad. Chain explosion was going to cause Schnee Dust Company astronomical losses. At least there won't be any personnel losses, though. The warehouse was empty.

My chest thumped as if it was hit by a sledgehammer. Oh shit. The girl that found me was still down there. I looked down where I last saw her and sure enough, she was still down there, completely unable to stand. Aw fuck. I judged the distance to the ground. I could still make the jump without injuring myself. I unbuckled the cable from my harness.

'What the fuck are you doing?' Harmony shrieked, as if I have gone mad. She gripped my wrist like iron, making sure I would not fall.

'The girl who caught me, she's still down there!' I pointed towards the prone figure, diverting her attention. Harmony took a glance then turned her gaze back to me. There was a hard flint in her eyes.

'If you jump, we can't wait for you.' She spoke with chilling finality. My spine tingled. I took another look at the ground. I had maybe five seconds to make up my mind. After that, the jump would probably injure me to a point where I would just end up dying in the ensuing conflagration anyway.

I took another look at the girl and hardened my resolve. 'Make sure client pays my share, alright? I don't want to be doing charity after all this horseshit.' Without another moment of hesitation, I jumped.

The jump did not break my bone or anything but, Remnant, it hurt. I grimaced for a second or two to suppress the pain. A brief look back to the ascending cargo informed me that Harmony meant her words. I did not blame her; one of us had to complete the job. It was just that I was the naïve one for not wanting a death on my hands.

Realising that the interval between the explosions was getting shorter, I made my way to the girl in a hurry. Holy hell, she was a mess. She was barely awake. From her weak fumbling, I assumed she was still blind and deaf. My flashbangs took awhile to wear off.

Deciding that explanation was too time-consuming and pointless, I opted to just sling her over my shoulder. She barely put up any resistance. It was possible she did not even know she was being carried since the grenade messed up one's sense of balance as well. I was saved from having to abandon the rapier as the girl simply refused to let it go despite her disoriented state.

Thank goodness she was so light; the strain on my legs was just barely tolerable.

The rhythm of the explosion picked up the pace. The chain explosion was entering the second half of its destructive symphony. The duration of that was much shorter than the first half, so I quickened my movements as well. Leaving by the front door was a luxury I could not afford so I made my way to the nearest window.

You know, since Fortune has been such a bitch to me the whole day, you might expect it to show me a favor once, right? Nope. As luck would have it, we were on the third floor of the warehouse. I would have been happy with the second floor. Maybe even a two-point-five.

I guess it could have been my fault for forgetting that I was on the third floor.

If there was even a trace of a chance for me to make my way downstairs in time, I would have taken it. As it were, I could feel the pinpricks of heat on my skin. The fiery orchestra was approaching its finale and I was not sticking around for that.

I took a rough estimate to the ground. There was no way I was going to be fine after that. I hardened my resolve for the second time that evening. I jumped.

In the end, I never found out how much time I had before the final, all-consuming explosion erupted. The moment I slammed into the ground, my world went dark.

And that is how my criminal career came to an end.


	2. Chapter 2: Homeless

**DISCLAIMER: Those that ought to belong to others shall belong to their respective owners. Those that ought to belong to me, if any, shall belong to me.**

-x-x-x-x-

Homeless

Once you've been to one interrogation room, you pretty much have been to them all.

The cheap light bulb, check. The tiny rectangular table under the light, check. Two flimsy collapsible chairs facing each other, check. The dark one-way mirror on one wall, check. It was like they copied the interior design guide from an interrogation room manual and pasted it onto reality.

I was getting pretty familiar with the crooks and crannies of this one as, for some reason, they were keeping me longer they needed to.

After I had awakened in hospital, they quickly frisked me into this room and tried to squeeze as much information out of me as possible. I gave them details of my current alias, fully aware that I was never going to be able to use that one again; too many people from Schnee Company was going to know me by that identity.

One good thing the chain explosion did was that it pretty much eradicated all evidence of our crime. In fact, they did not even know that one crate of dust was currently under my client's care. I kept mum throughout our conversation and eventually, they convinced themselves that I was there to sabotage the facility. They informed me how serious a crime sabotage was – much more serious than burglary, as it turned out – and told me to mull over my options and cooperate to lessen my sentence.

That was hours ago. They have not returned to see if I was willing to cooperate or not. Not that I was going to, mind you. Like I said, I was a professional.

I was dozing off to catch up on my missed sleep last night when the click of the door awakened me. I rubbed the sleepiness off the eyes and found that I had visitors. My visitors consisted of a man with a walking stick and a woman in a purple cape. Interesting. You did not really see capes these days.

It was obvious these two were not the police. Police never looked at me with such eyes. Their eyes would either contain disdain or pity, emotions meant for those they considered their inferior. These people did not show those. The lady perceived me as a potential threat, her guards up. The man's eyes, on the other hand, had a gleam of a man who saw a potential investment. A client, then.

I sat upright, recognizing a possible opportunity when I saw one. 'Nice to meet you. You can call me Bectus.' I gave a polite greeting, giving my false name.

'Good evening, Bectus. Well, I expected quite a few things but politeness was not one of them.' He chuckled.

'I believe in leaving good first impressions in a business meeting.'

'A business meeting, you say? And what sort of business would that be?' Huh. Well, that was odd. My clients tended to be more subtle. They did not like making direct comments on what they wanted me to do.

I glimpsed at various corners of the wall, worried about the recording devices. They did not seem like the police but I had no way of being certain of that. Maybe this was an elaborate ploy to get a confession out of me. I decided to keep my mouth shut to the last question.

'No answer, is it?' The man asked. Suddenly, his eyes seemed much more piercing, more perceptive. 'Alright then. Let me ask something else then. You saved the girl in the Schnee warehouse facility, am I right?'

Of all possible questions, that was not the one I expected. Confounded, I nodded.

'If I were to make a guess; is it correct to say that if you did not save her, you would have made a clean getaway?' Judging that the answer wouldn't bite me in the ass later, I nodded again.

'So what made you go out your way to save the life of a stranger?'

'Excuse me?'

'Why would you get yourself captured to save somebody you did not know?'

I felt my temper rise. 'Is it that strange?'

'I'm sorry?' He asked for a clarification.

His befuddlement just got me angrier. 'Is it so strange that I had an option to save a person and I took it?' I slammed down on the table, making the woman bring up her weapon. I did not care. 'There are very few things I won't do for money. As it happens, trading a life happens to be one of them. I don't want to be paid with a cheque written in blood. I don't want to be a filthy scum who finds it acceptable to kill off people just so he can get scot-free. If you are the kind of trash that counts people's lives in terms of numbers, you can take your fucking business proposition and feed it to the Grimms.' Polite was the last thing on my mind at this point. The man had touched upon the one policy I would rather starve than to break.

My two visitors took a moment to digest my words then exchanged a glance. The woman still seemed to disapprove of me. The man seemed to be satisfied for some reason though. Disapproval, I understood; I did just insult their offer, after all. However, satisfaction left me confused.

I sensed I was being baited but could not resist. I bit. 'Who are you people? I know you are not the police.'

His raised his eyebrow. 'Oh? You seemed so sure of who we were just now, stating we had business for you and all.'

'Yeah, well, my conviction got shot to pieces. Something tells me you are not here to hire my…' I glanced around again, mindful of the recording devices.

'If you are worried about our conversation being taped, I assure you, we are off tape.' I didn't know whether to take his word for it. It was still possible this was all just an elaborate set up to get my confession. On the other hand, I was sick of beating around the bush.

Ah, what the hell. I was planning to break out of prison anyway. A couple more of years in my sentence were not going to impede my escape attempt. 'Something tells me you are not here to hire me for anything illegal.'

A small smile appeared at my integrity. 'No, we are not.'

'So if that is the case, why are you talking to me? You are obviously an important person somewhere. Why are you spending your time here?'

'Tell me, have you heard of the Beacon Academy?' I blinked at the question, not seeing its relevance.

'Course I have. Who haven't? I met a few from the academy during my career. Troublesome bastards.' I was not fond of huntsmen and huntresses, since they would totally pulverize me in a fight. Standard protocol for meeting them was to run like hell and hope I lost them.

'Have you ever wanted to be a huntsman?'

'I…' I wanted to deny it; to claim I never thought about being a huntsman. To dream of such a thing was foolish, a fantasy. But I was seventeen after all, the age potential huntsmen enrolled into Beacon. 'That's not of your business,' was all I managed to utter.

'I disagree. You see, I am Professor Ozpin; Headmaster of Beacon Academy. That makes it my business whether you want to be huntsman or not because I have interest inviting you as a student.'

It took me a second to process what he said. It took considerably longer to comprehend it.

There have been many points in my life when I was left speechless. It's not too rare an occurrence; Harmony managed to do that in a regular basis. But what Ozpin said took the icing off the cake. In fact, it took the whole cake by itself. This wasn't possible. It was absurd!

I laughed out loud. It seemed they did not expect that at all, by the look of surprise on their faces. The lady did not seem amused at my outburst.

It took me a moment to compose myself. 'That was a good one.' I managed between my gasps for air. 'Alright. You have a sense of humor. Now tell me what you really want.' There was no way he was from Beacon.

He did not say anything. If anything, he seemed more serious now than he had ever been this whole evening. His severe expression challenged me to find a reason to doubt his words. I searched. I really did. I tried to find any hints of deceit; any traces of bluff. I could not.

'You serious?' I asked.

He gave a single nod.

-x-x-x-x-

I'll say one thing about Ozpin. He had some serious strings.

Once I agreed to what was probably the greatest offer ever, of all times, he had me out of my silver bracelets within thirty minutes. There were no charges, no additional conditions for freedom. Just by being freed, I was already on the better side of the deal.

After receiving the instructions from Glynda and making appropriate display of farewell, I made a random stroll through the City of Vale. I took my lunch, bought some stuff I would need at Beacon and spent the free time doing completely pointless things. Once I was sure there was no tail from the police – another startling display of Ozpin's strings – I made my way to our hideout.

There was nothing like home sweet home. Just looking at the shabby door of this worn down apartment block made me feel welcomed. Tired to the bone and aching with various injuries, I simply could not wait to lie down and sleep. I punched my passcode into the door lock and flung it open.

One thing I learned while being a thief was to trust my intuition. There are times when cold, rational calculations were not fast enough and one had to go with the gut feelings. It wasn't right all the time, of course. Still, it had proved itself useful often in the past that when it nagged at me, I would follow it without question.

When I flung the door open, my instincts screamed danger. I managed to jump out of the way in time to avoid a crossbow bolt. Holy shit. Harmony was shooting at me!

'Harmony! It's me!' I yelled.

'Breaker?' She looked out from the doorway with a shocked expression. I smiled weakly at her and gave a little wave.

She came over and pulled me up. 'You are free! You have to tell how you did that.' A frown appeared on her forehead. 'Did you sell me out?'

I smiled at the all too familiar paranoia. I ushered her into the house, to escape from any eavesdroppers. 'No, Harmony. I did not sell us out.'

At my assurance, she relaxed. We may be capable of betraying one another but we did not lie to each other. Among thieves, that was as solid as friendship could get. 'Tell me how you got free!'

'First though, I want my share.'

A flash of sadness crossed her face. She took her phone, typed for awhile. 'There. Transferred. Go check.'

I didn't bother. 'You really did get my share.' I beamed at her.

'Took awhile to convince them. They were insisting that you were more trouble that you are worth.' I chuckled at that. Clients were just like thieves. They tried to avoid parting with their money at any opportunity. 'Anyway, it's your turn. Tell me how you got free.'

I took a cup of water. 'You are not going to believe this.'

-x-x-x-x-

'I don't believe you.'

'Oh, come on. When did I ever lie to you?'

'Should I recount chronologically or alphabetically?'

'Stop quoting movies. It's an intellectual property.'

'And I am a thief. What's your point?'

I laughed. It felt good to be bantering with her again. Knowing she would not be convinced with words, I produced the enrollment document Glynda gave me. She snatched it from my hand, looked it over, and then perused it in detail. Eventually satisfied, she gave it back. 'Looks genuine.'

'I'm going next week.' I grinned widely, only to realise that she did not look as pleased as I thought she might be. 'Hey, something wrong?'

My words jolted her out of her reverie. 'No. It's just that you get to go to Beacon Academy while I'm stuck here, just being a petty thief.'

'Hey, don't say that.'

An annoyed look came over her. 'Why not? It's true.'

'Why are you so mad? It's not like I can keep working as a thief for awhile.' That was the truth. With my body this busted up, there was no way I was going to be able pull off stunts like the one yesterday for awhile.

Her voice rose; she was genuinely angry. 'The thing is; it's not going to be awhile, is it? You are not going to come back! Why would you? Once you finish your training, you will be a fucking huntsman! Why would anyone give that up to become a petty thief again?'

I wanted to argue but could not think of what to say. The truth was that I have not even thought that far ahead yet. But now that I thought about it, I was unable to dispute her words.

She did not miss my silence. 'Ha! I knew it. You really aren't coming back. You know, it's a good thing you got cut from the team. Frees you from obliga…' She stopped, realizing what she was saying.

It was too late. 'What do you mean I'm cut from the team?' It wasn't really a question. I could piece what happened easily enough. Anger sparked.

If I really was cut, there was only one reason for it. It meant my client did not want anyone catching wind that I have been working for them. I have been seen by Schnee Company and now they were not going to be caught being seen with me. It made sense from management point of view. Schnee Company's retaliations were legendary. Rather than to risk suffering those losses, it was a lot cheaper to hire someone new.

Something else clicked. Rage coursed through me.

'They didn't pay me for the work, did they? They were buying my silence.' Her silence gave me the answer. 'You lied to me.' I snarled.

The fact that she lied to me angered me more than anything. I could accept her decision to leave me behind in an exploding warehouse. It had been my decision and I knew what I was getting into. A lie was something else.

If she was forced to sell me out but had told me about it, I would not have been as cross. In the world of thieves, such things were common. Sometimes, circumstances forced you to give up on your friends. However, you warned them either beforehand or afterwards what was coming their way so they could make their own preparations. That was how friendship worked among thieves.

She did one thing, perhaps the only thing, unforgivable in our relationship.

Wordlessly, I began to pack my belongings. I ignored her attempts at apologies. I did not speak a word to her. Within minutes, I was out on the streets again.

For the first time in awhile, I was without a home again.


	3. Chapter 3: Distractions

**DISCLAIMER: Those that ought to belong to others shall belong to their respective owners. Those that ought to belong to me, if any, shall belong to me.**

-x-x-x-x-

Distractions

As I rode in the airship, appreciating the fine scenery out the windows and walking among those who were going to be my schoolmates for the next four years, there was only one thought on my mind.

Distractions, I needed distractions.

The reason for this was simple; there were too many people whose pockets I could easily pick.

These students were terrible at taking care of their possessions; one of them kept his money in a pouch on his back! If I were to succumb to the temptation, I'm sure I could have quadrupled the lien in my wallet. Considering that most of these people were Signal trained, it was shocking to see how vulnerable they were. Well, they were trained to fight monsters, not pickpockets. Fending off thieves was probably not in their training curriculum.

Despite the temptation, I kept my fingers to myself. There were many reasons stealing was a bad idea. One, if I did get caught – improbable but possible – there was going to be a rather angry potential huntsman/huntress to deal with. There was no way I could to win against a Signal trained person, which most of these people happened to be. Two, I was stuck on an airship. Even if I made a clean getaway, they might find later on that their lien was stolen. If a ship wide search was conducted, I wouldn't be able to keep the money anyway. Three, I was trying to quit. This was a chance to turn a new leaf. I did not want to blow that chance away stealing lien I did not even need.

I was learning that trying to quit stealing was like quitting smoking, however. It had withdrawal symptom. Without even realizing, my eyes wondered to various wallets and valuable possessions each people had and my brain kept assessing my chance of success for each item.

Bad Balthazar. No stealing.

I needed a distraction.

Looking at the scenery was fruitless. My various assignments using airships had left me dull to the beauty of the overhead view of landscapes. Checking out the girls was not as successful as I thought it would be. I mean, it works the first few seconds I laid my eyes on them but then I will notice what sort of style they dressed, whether they had anything on them that looked expensive, whether it was something portable and easily removed…

I needed something else to distract me.

'Oh, I can't believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me. This is the best day ever!' came from the blond girl to my left.

'Please, stop,' murmured the short girl dressed in black and red, currently squeezed by blond girl's hug.

'But I'm so proud of you!' Before I knew, I was eavesdropping. Well, if I had to choose between eavesdropping and stealing, eavesdropping was the lesser evil.

The conversation was fairly interesting, telling me a little bit about the smaller girl. I was wondering what she could have done to move up two years into Beacon when ship's broadcast system came online.

'The robbery was led by the nefarious criminal, Roman Torchwick…' A familiar face came on the ship's holographic screen, capturing my attention.

I knew of Roman Torchwick; almost every thief did. This wasn't necessarily a good thing when one was a thief. According to Harmony – who had worked with the man on occasions – the man was loud, infuriating and foolish but also determined. He also had a knack of recognizing situations he should retreat from. That made him the sort of thief one hired if they wanted a long-term work done secretively. He was unlikely to cut himself halfway through the project or get himself captured by mistake.

I wondered what he was involved in now as the news anchor continued to babble on. Then all of a sudden, Glynda came on the screen and my interests dropped. Deciding I could probably do without whatever she was selling, I went for another stroll. I aimlessly wondered for a good five minutes before finding myself in front of the washroom.

May as well wash my face; I was sleepy.

Even the toilet was posh on this airship, equipped with an automatic door. How much dough did this school have, if they can afford several of these airships just to fetch students?

As I stepped out after my wash, my attention was elsewhere and I did not notice a guy entering. He shoved me out of the way easily, being much bigger and fitter than me, knocking me to the ground. 'Watch where you are going, retard.' He sneered at me as he walked past.

That flipped my switch. I wasn't going to take shit like that lying down. He might be stronger than me but I had other cards I could play. Without hesitation, I laid my hands on the washroom door and focused. I was going to lock him in. It took me just a few seconds, just in time before he reached it. There was a sound of him clicking on the door switch. Nothing happened.

'Hey, what the hell?' The clicking got more frantic, with no effect. 'What's wrong with this stupid thing?' Soon, sounds of banging on the door accompanied his shouting. Feeling immensely smug, I turned my back to the door, not really caring how he was going to get out.

When I turned, there was a girl in front of me. She was of slightly shorter than average height with shoulder length green hair. She had an awed look in her face. 'Wow, how did you do that?'

Aw, crap. I had a witness.

'Tell me how you did it!' Her voice was too loud for my taste. Before she could draw more attention, I clamped a hand over her mouth. However, the girl had surprising amount of strength, easily prying my hand away.

'Tell me how you did that!' She chirped excitedly. I felt my panic rise.

'Would you stop that? People are looking!' I hissed.

'Tell me, tell me, tell me!' She was relentless.

'Alright, alright! But keep quiet!'

At my words, she held out her forefinger and stuck it on her lips. She bobbed excitedly, a happy grin plastered over her face. I took a look at that jovial expression and groaned.

It looked like I landed myself an oddball.

-x-x-x-x-

I led her around the ship until I came across somewhere less occupied. It wasn't empty but it would have to do. I turned my attention to the girl.

'Are you going to tell me now?' she enquired.

'Yes. I guess.' I thought about how to best explain this. A demonstration was probably the best option. I took out one of my High Explosive grenades, focused on it and pulled the pin. Her eyes went wide.

'What the hell are you doing?' She pulled out her weapon case which quickly morphed into a halberd. The happy-go-lucky expression was gone, replaced by something much more feral. Shit. Perhaps this demonstration was not the best idea. Seized with terror, I backed away as far as possible and held up my hands.

'Wait! It's safe!' I screamed at top of my lungs, turning the heads of others in the room. Feeling embarrassed, I hid the grenade from their view. This definitely was not the best idea.

Seeing that the grenade did not explode, the girl sheathed her weapon and approached me warily. 'Is that a dud?'

Glad that she was catching on, I answered enthusiastically, 'yes! Well, no. I mean, it was real but it's not going to work anymore.' My babbling piqued her curiosity.

'What do you mean?' She was back to the perky state.

Sensing the danger had passed, I showed her the grenade. She took it from my hand, shook it close by her ear and listened. I wasn't worried about it exploding; it was now completely inert. Once done with her examination, she returned it to me.

'How did you do that?' she asked.

'It's my semblance.'

'Your semblance?' She parroted.

'Yeah.' I ran a hand through my hair, trying to recall how I explained my semblance to Harmony in the past. 'My semblance causes things to malfunction.'

'Ooh.' Her eyes told me to continue.

'To put things simply; I break things, very easily. This grenade is never going to explode unless somebody fixes it.' To emphasize my point, I tossed it into the air.

'So you broke the door just now.' She muttered.

'Yup. I screwed up the door's opening mechanism. He'll have to smash it open if he wants to come out.' I grinned at the thought of him trapped. He could wait until somebody got him out but I hoped he forced his way. That way, the vandalism would be his fault.

The girl thought for a moment, then brought out her weapon. Although she kept it in its storage form, I flinched a little, unsure why she wanted it out. 'Can you break this too?'

I nodded. A collapsible weapon was a piece of cake for my semblance. They had so many interlocking parts that could easily be made to malfunction.

She grinned excitedly at my answer and put her weapon away. 'Can you break this airship?'

'Yes, but it's not easy. Although I won't ever do that when I am riding one. My semblance can't fix things. If I mess something up, I will have to fix it manually if I ever want to use it again.'

She looked really impressed. 'Your semblance is so strong.' Privately, I disagreed. My semblance wouldn't save me if somebody came at me with something simple like a dagger or a sword. It also wouldn't be of any use if the guns shooting at me were out of my reach. It did nothing against dust either.

It was useful at getting rid of security systems in place though, which was why I excelled at breaking and entering.

'So are you satisfied now?' Now that she knew what happened, maybe she would leave me alone.

She vigorously nodded. 'Hey, what's your name?'

'Why?' My paranoia flared, as it always did when someone asked for my name.

'Because we are friends, silly! How else am I going to call you if I need somebody locked behind a door?'

Her answer was so ridiculous, so absurd and so different from what I was used to getting from people that it caught me off guard. For the first time since I parted ways with Harmony, I laughed wholeheartedly.

'It's…' I almost said Breaker, the name I have been known as for the last five years. Realizing that I probably will never be called that again really put my situation into perspective. I didn't know how I felt about it. 'Balthazar Venarius, at your service.' My real name felt rusty on my tongue, after so many years of disuse.

'Lestia Glass. We are gonna be the best friends ever, of all times,' said Lestia, her face full of conviction.

We chatted throughout the rest of the airship ride. Not once did I need a distraction.

-x-x-x-x-

I'll say one thing about Beacon. It was really freaking big. Huge. Enormous. After fifteen minutes of dead ends and walking in circles, Lestia and I finally found the blasted assembly area.

The place was quite packed, most of the students having arrived already. We were quite literally the last students to reach here. While I preferred being at the back of the crowd, Lestia preferred being at the front. Therefore, we compromised and started making our way to the front.

Halfway through the journey, I heard a girl yelling and turned that way. What I saw gave me enough shock for a minor heart attack. Before my eyes was the girl that caught me in the Schnee Dust Company warehouse. She was yelling at the smaller girl I eavesdropped on earlier in the airship.

It was unmistakably her. She was kind of hard to forget, with her white long hair and attire.

Lestia sensed me freeze. 'What's wrong?'

I struggled to calm my hammering heart. Relax, Balthazar. There is no way she knows who you are. You had your visor on the whole time and she was blind and deaf for the most of that duration. Still, I did not want to push my luck. She did hear me talk; it might be possible for her to recognize me by that. I had to get away from her.

'Let's go that way.' I pointed the opposite direction. Not suspecting a thing, Lestia agreed swiftly. As long as it was to the front, it did not matter much to her.

As I made my escape through the tide of students, my mind processed the situation. There wasn't much to process though. It was highly unlikely she would recognize me. Still, it was going to be a real trouble if she did. I would have to store away my flashbang grenades and do without my visor as well. I would also need to keep my eyes open, avoiding her as much as possible. Other than those, there was nothing much I could do, short of quitting the school. I found that I did not want to do that.

Lestia nudged me, directing my attention to the front. Professor Ozpin was about to start his speech.

Pushing the thought of the girl in white out of my mind, I paid attention to my headmaster.

-x-x-x-x-

The temptation was back, stronger than before.

These students were absolute shit at keeping their possessions. Why would you not keep your things in the lockers provided if you are just going to leave them abandoned nearby? The various items of respectable value kept beckoning me, trying to break my will as they remained seductively unattended.

I needed a distraction.

Sleep would have been ideal since there was to be an initiation tomorrow. However, just like many other ideal things, it was also unattainable. There were noises everywhere. You can't stuff hundreds of seventeen years old into a single room – no matter how big – and expect lights out by ten. It just did not happen.

If I really wanted, I could have put my visor on, shut off the sensors and have gone to sleep. However, that was out of question. Not only would I look like a complete retard, sleeping with a visor on, but that girl in white was around somewhere. Visor was pretty much dead to me from this point on, as were the flashbang grenades.

I wished Lestia was here. She was something akin to a miniature force of nature, equivalent to stuffs like hailstones and forest fire, and forces of nature were quite distracting. If she was here, I had no doubt that my mind would be completely free of the temptation. Oh well, can't keep dwelling on what I did not have. Another thing forces of nature were was unpredictable, after all. I had no idea what she might be doing, where she might be. She was probably making new friends somewhere.

I was on my own.

I got up from my spot, opting to remove myself from the temptation rather than to resist it. I made my way to the locker room; the only other place I knew of in this school other than the washroom and cafeteria. It was empty, as I hoped it would be.

I did not bother with the lights. What kind of a thief would I be, if I was not comfortable in the dark? Without a single collision, I arrived at my locker. I punched in the code and opened it. After rummaging through my possessions, I found what I was looking for. Deftly, I pulled it out.

It was a little twisted ring made of metal wire, barely half the size of my thumb. It was one of the first items I had ever stolen and the only one I was unable to sell or trade for food because it lacked monetary value. Over the years, it became something of a lucky charm. It felt somehow fitting for me to look at it again, since I was about to start a new chapter in my life.

Oh, how Harmony would have laughed at my sentimentality.

As I laid on one of the benches, tinkering with my lucky charm, I heard footsteps. There was more than one and they were approaching the locker room. Aw, crap. I tossed the ring back into the locker and shut it with least noise as possible.

I prayed that these people were just walking past. If they entered the locker room and found me, it was going to look fairly suspicious. I was in a room full of lockers containing students' possessions, skulking in the dark. If I walked in on someone like that, I knew what I was going to think of him.

To my dismay, the footsteps entered the room. I crouched in the corner of the room, all the while waiting for the light to go on and startled yelps to be shouted as they found me. My hand tightened around the emergency smoke grenade I kept at all times, as I contemplated whether it was worth using upon my eventual discovery.

It never happened.

Two newcomers walked into the room without lights, bumping into various benches as they went to another corner of the room. Once out of the view of the corridor, they attached themselves to each other. Kissing noises appeared.

Oh my god. They were making out.

That was both an opportunity and a reason for me to get the hell out. I made my exit as silently as a ghost. I did not pause once out of the room, distancing myself from the couple as much as possible as soon as I can.

Once I was far away enough, I broke into laughter. Well, that was interesting. Not surprising though, considering our age and current situation. It certainly got my adrenaline pumping.

That was enough adventure for one night.

I made my way back to the ballroom. Things have settled down by this point, most of the people sleeping and most of the lights dark. I made my way to my spot and made myself comfortable. I briefly wondered which two of the unoccupied sleeping bags belonged to the passionate duo.

It had been an interesting day.


	4. Chapter 4: Introductions

**DISCLAIMER: Those that ought to belong to others shall belong to their respective owners. Those that ought to belong to me, if any, shall belong to me.**

-x-x-x-x-

Introductions

Ugh. I felt like crap.

Do you know how well a thief can sleep in an enclosed area full of huntsman and huntress cadets? Not very well, as it turned out. Throughout the night, people kept moving about for reasons I could not fathom. Thanks to them, there had been an uninterrupted flow of noise over the whole night that proved detrimental to a certain ex-thief's comfortable sleep.

Combine my lack of sleep with the injuries I got as souvenir from the Schnee warehouse and I was in a state far from peachy. This was rather unfortunate, since today was initiation.

Well, at least I didn't feel like stealing anymore; I was too tired.

Currently, I was nodding off in front of my plate of pancakes, trying to sneak in a couple minutes of sleep.

'Morning, sunshine!' Lestia's voice greeted me and my head got smacked into the pancakes. Lestia sat on the opposite side of the table as I detached myself from my breakfast. Thank goodness I'm the type that does not pour the syrup over.

'Lestia, what the hell.' It was supposed to be fierce but all I managed was meekly instead.

'Nothing like digging in head first into breakfast, right? Just like a fight.' She showed no trace of apology as she cheerfully and mercilessly devoured her pancakes. Her mood was infectious and soon I was munching on mine.

'So what happens in an initiation?' I asked, hoping to prepare myself.

'The students enter one versus one single combat: fight to the death.' She replied insouciantly.

It took me awhile to realizing she was bullshitting; I was really off-form today. 'Lestia, that will reduce our year's size to half.'

'Which will double our portions of pancakes!'

I chuckled at her reply. 'Seriously, what's going to happen today?'

'Oh, who knows. Everyone is all guess and no fact.' She had finished her pancakes and was eyeing mine hungrily. I ignored her stare.

'So you have no clue at all?' I took a small bite.

'I wouldn't say that.' She gulped. 'Are you going to finish that?'

'Lestia.'

'Look, everyone is saying all kinds of things about the initiation test; monsters, assassination, obstacle course and dragons. I don't know what to believe. But most of them seemed sure that it will settle the teammate issue somehow. Now, please let me eat the pancakes; I'm really hungry.' She had this pout on. I handed her my plate and soon the pancakes met their end.

'Oh. So no clue how teams are made?'

'Nope.' That was a disappointment. I was hoping for a bit of info so I could prepare myself. Oh well, it looked like a day of improvisation awaited me. A question formed in my mind. 'So who are you going to partner?' I asked as indifferently as I could manage.

Lestia laughed at the question. 'Of course you, silly. Who else would I partner?'

I was at loss of words at her prompt response. It was the answer I wanted, of course, but I had hardly hoped. I wanted to express my immense gratitude but did not know how.

Then the moment passed. With a clatter, Lestia dropped the now empty plate onto the table.

'How come your pancakes taste better than mine?'

'That's because you shoved my face in there just now.' I smirked.

She frowned. 'Eww, gross.'

'Serves you right'

-x-x-x-x-

Damn, Emerald Forest was vast. We were on top of the cliff overlooking the forest. Each of us was standing on one of the platforms placed in a row that paralleled the edge of the cliff. I was on the third platform from my end.

'For years, you have trained to become warriors.' Not really. I don't think thieves were considered warriors. 'And today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest,' said Professor Ozpin. My eyes lingered on the mug of coffee in his hand.

Glynda Goodwitch continued, 'now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates, today.'

Professor Ozpin spoke again. 'These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well.' I nodded at his words; I knew importance of having a compatible partner. 'That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years.'

A startled shout of 'what!?' came from the other end of the platforms, echoing my sentiment.

This was the stupidest method ever, of all times.

As the rest of the instructions were given, my mind blazed. With such a system of partner selection, it was a distinct possibility to be not paired with Lestia. I began to worry. I stole a glance to my right to find Lestia looking unperturbed at all.

'Are there any questions?' Ozpin ended his instructions with this question. 'Good. Now, take your positions.'

'Psst, Circe. Shoot me a link,' whispered the guy on the first platform to the girl beside him. Immediately afterwards, his platform launched him into the air, towards the forest down below.

What the fuck.

The girl second in line watched as the first guy soared through the air. 'Fascinating,' she muttered calmly. Her platform launched her an instant later.

Next was me.

'Lestia, look for a green… Uwah!' was all I managed as I flew into the air.

-x-x-x-x-

The flight was longer than I thought it would be.

It was an excellent time for introspection, really. It gave me ample time to think about a few things like: how I regretted coming to Beacon to only be killed by a launching platform; how mad Professor Ozpin was, if he thought this was an acceptable method of conducting an initiation; and whether Lestia heard the few words I said before I got launched.

Behind me, I could see airborne silhouettes as the rest of the first years got their turns. It seemed that not everyone considered the situation terrifying; I swore I heard whoops of delight from a few of them. I wondered how many in this Academy were mad.

As the ground approached, all non-essential lines of thought were shut down and diverted towards priority number one: how to land without dying.

For once though, Fortune was showing me favor; I did have something I could try. I did not know whether it would work, of course. Still, it was better than hoping I landed on a soft part of the forest.

After the incident in the Schnee facility, I had developed a sudden interest in finding ways to land from outrageous heights without injuring myself. The solution I found was called a foam grenade. Once it exploded, it would rapidly produce large quantity of foams that quickly semi-solidified into a cushiony sort of state. It was useful in mines in cases of cave-ins, shielding the people from rocks above. It was immune to fire, porous and, if one had enough time and patience, could be traversed through from one end to another.

I wondered if it was enough to save me; it was highly doubtful that the manufacturers had my current situation in mind when they designed this thing. Oh well. I didn't have a choice.

I brought out my revolver and loaded all its eight chambers with the foam bomb pellets. In my other hand, I brought out two foam grenades and pulled the safety pins. I waited for as much as possible, to be sure of my landing spot, before shooting all the pellets and then tossing the two grenades. Foams rose rapidly and swallowed me up. I shut my eyes and prayed with all my heart, all the while expecting the bone-crushing pain.

It never came.

Holy crap. I was alive.

When I opened my eyes, my world was white and bubbly. I was completely surrounded by the foams. Unable to see the rest of my body, I substituted by wiggling all the body parts. It felt that everything was in working order. Foam grenade had done its job splendidly.

Now, I just needed to get out of this marvelous piece of technological ingenuity. Eight bomb pellets and two grenades of foam meant a lot of that stuff. A lot. Luckily, there was an easy way to get rid of it. After some struggle, I managed to reach a specific button on my vambrace. I pressed it.

Immediately, the foams began to break down. They had a specific disintegration frequency; otherwise, they would be awfully hard to get rid of. Once the last of the foams disappeared, I laid on the ground, my legs weak with relief.

Beacon Academy was not good for my heart.

Remembering that I needed to find Lestia, I took out my green smoke grenade and tossed it to the side. Hopefully, Lestia saw the smoke signal and sought me out.

Now, all I had to do was to wait.

-x-x-x-x-

I was bored.

I did not want to admit it but it was true. There was this desire, this need to be doing…something, anything but inaction. I paced in circles. I had already scouted the perimeter, making sure there weren't any monsters nearby. I could try climbing to the top of the tree again; see if I can find Lestia. I shook my head and pushed the thought away. It was just a waste of time.

How was it possible that after mere five minutes from escaping a gruesome death, I could already be restless with boredom? It did not make sense. For a brief moment, I seriously pondered whether Beacon's madness was contagious.

Deciding to be productive, I laid down my inventory on the ground. I may as well make sure all my gears were still in working order. The fact that my semblance can easily screw up other people's equipments made me always paranoid about my own gears' functionality.

First for checking was my revolver – which I affectionately called Fiasco; it was a little joke, since the gun was only used in heists when things were going wrong. In general, I mistrusted guns. My semblance, malfunction, was effective against all guns – especially the collapsible sort – and I did not have absolute mastery over it. There were times in the past when the guns I was shooting with just went dead in my hands because of my semblance. Malfunction had a general rule: simpler the device, harder it is to be broken. This meant a revolver was most resistant among all the guns.

Next for checking were my grenades and bullets. Explosives were my weapons of choice, mainly because I had more control over them than most people; malfunction allowed me to nullify them at any point I wanted, as long as it was before the actual explosion. My grenades came in all types: high explosive, smoke, EMP, fire, sleeping gas, etc. For bullets, I had the standard sort for revolvers and the custom-made bomb pellets. Bomb pellets were basically bullet form of my grenades that detonated upon impact. They were weaker than the actual grenades but much more versatile.

My throwing knives were next. They all had a slot in the centre for a bomb pellet to be placed. They were my silent projectiles, in moments when gunshots were not an option. Their edges were nothing to laugh at either.

Last set of equipment was the vambraces on my arms. I had invested quite a bit of lien on these, for these were the things that kept me alive. They were strong enough to resist most weapon blows and also served as controllers for my miscellaneous devices like the visor or foam disintegrator. I kept my throwing knives there as well.

Once satisfied that my stuffs were in working order, I packed them up with the efficiency that came with years of practice.

'Hey, I think we finally found the place!' came a cry from behind. From the ground vegetation emerged the guy who had been the first student to be launched. Our eyes met. Aw, crap. My spirit dampened. It looked like I won't be partnering with Lestia after all.

'Alex, be quiet. You will invite every monster within half a mile.' The girl that had been the second to be launched emerged from behind the guy.

Wait a minute. If these two were together, that meant they were partners! My partner spot was still vacant. Feeling considerably better, I observed the pair.

The guy, Alex, was tall, well-built and dressed in armor. He had a teardrop shaped shield on his left and a mace in his right. His hair was like a crown of flames and a confident grin lit his face.

The girl was slender and of medium height. She had a glove/gauntlet on each hand, something I recognized as Casting Purpose Dust Gauntlets. Her hair was a wave of purple that reached to her waist. Her face displayed tranquility.

Alex gave me a wave, 'hey ya, there. You lit the distress signal?' He thumbed towards my green smoke.

Oh, they must have mistaken the smoke trail as a distress signal. 'It's not a distress signal. It's for my friend to find me.'

At my answer, Alex's face fell and the girl crossed her arms. 'See, Alex. I told you it was a beacon.' A small smile flickered on her face.

Alex rubbed his forehead. 'Yeah, yeah. You win as usual.' Without another word, he took some lien and handed it to his partner.

He took another glance at my smoke. 'I must say, that's a wicked smart way to get your friends become your teammates.' The girl nodded her assent and looked at me. I had a distinct feeling of being studied.

Hoping to be free from her silent staring, I introduced myself, 'Balthazar Venarius, by the way. Nice to meet you.'

'Alex Marsdonia, likewise. And this here is…'

She cut in. 'I can introduce myself, Alex.' She turned to me, 'Circe Arganets.' I recognized the last name.

'When you say Arganets, you don't mean…'

'Yes, you are speaking to the second child of the family that runs the illustrious Arganets Dust Manufacturing.' At Alex's introduction, Circe shot him a frosty glare. Alex grinned back, which impressed the hell out of me because I would have trembled under such a glare.

If Schnee Dust Company was an empire, Arganets Dust Manufacturing was like a kingdom. While vastly smaller in size, it was still nothing to sneeze at. There were pockets in Remnants where Schnee was too far to matter and Arganets reigned supreme.

'That explains the CPDG, I guess.' I muttered without thinking.

'You know about Casting Purpose Dust Gauntlets?' Alex said in surprise. Oops.

Casting Purpose Dust Gauntlets were not really a public knowledge; they were barely available to the military. They amplified the effects of dust to powerful levels but were notoriously difficult to use. If the wielder's concentration wavered, it caused messy explosions. The dust companies controlled manufacture of them with grips of iron. The only reason I knew about them was because I had robbed dust companies so much. I couldn't tell them that.

'I am a weapon mania?' I offered weakly. Alex eyed me with suspicion.

On the other hand, Circe seemed untroubled by my knowledgeability. 'It's named CouP De Grace.' Alex, seeing that his friend was letting the matter drop, followed suit.

I inwardly sighed with relief. Crisis averted for now. 'CouP De Grace. CPDG. Nice name, very smart.'

'Thank you.'

I tried to change the subject. 'You guys didn't happen to see a girl with green hair on your way here, did you? About this short, has a two-headed halberd?' I raised my hand to Lestia's approximate height.

At my description, the two exchanged a look of recognition.

'Wait. You did?'

They nodded as one.

-x-x-x-x-

Lestia was literally the weirdest girl I've met in my life.

I could see her now, sitting under a tree with her fearsome weapon tightly held in her hands.

'So you are telling me that she's been like this the whole time?' I asked.

Alex nodded. 'Yup, nearly shot my head off when I called her out.'

I facepalmed, 'I can't believe this.'

'Go get her, stop making her wait.' Circe's tone contained a trace of disapproval.

I nodded in agreement. 'I think you guys should wait here.'

Alex chuckled, 'Trust me. Even if you invited, I wasn't going to accept.'

Leaving them behind, I approached Lestia on my own. As my footsteps reached her, she got up, brandishing her weapon. 'I don't know who you are but I'm warning you; get away from me.' I could see the barrel of her weapon aimed at my general direction.

Not wanting to be shot, I called out to her. 'Lestia, it's me. You can open your eyes now.'

Recognizing my voice, she opened her eyes. 'Balthazar!' She beamed happily.

She rushed to me, jumped the last metre and punched me squarely in the stomach. Not the greeting I was expecting. Sprawling on the ground, I looked up to her. 'Ouch. What was that for?'

'What took you so long?' She shouted back as she offered her hand.

'What took me so long? I was waiting for you!' Accepting her hand, I pulled myself off the ground.

She rolled her eyes. 'Waiting for me? How was I supposed to find you? All you told me was to look for a green something! What the hell! Everything is a green something here! This is the freaking EMERALD Forest!'

I didn't know how to argue with that.

Our bickering went for awhile more. I was so caught up in the reunion that I did not even notice Alex and Circe joining us. Alex's laughter interrupted our exchange. 'You guys are the cutest couple I've ever seen.'

Lestia's attention shifted towards Alex and Circe. 'Oh, hi! Name's Lestia Glass. Who are you?' She offered hand.

Circe took it. 'Circe Arganets. Pleasure to meet you.'

Alex shook the hand next. 'Alex Marsdonia. I'm the guy you shot at just now, by the way.'

Lestia laughed at the memory. 'Sorry. I had to make sure I didn't make eye contact with anybody until Balthazar arrived.' As a thought occurred to her, worry settled on her face. 'Wait, you came with him, right? Does that mean you made eye contact with him already?'

I clarified. 'They are partners with each other already. You are the first person I made eye contact with that's without a partner.'

She sighed with relief. 'Thank goodness. I would have beaten the shit out of you if you ditched me when I waited so much for you.' Upon her words, I sighed with relief as well. At my reaction, Alex laughed again.

Circe's clicked her finger and grabbed our attention. 'Well, while all this was entertaining, it is time we got on with our initiation.' She said placidly.

That brought my mind back to the current situation. 'Yeah. The longer we spend in this forest, more likely we will meet some monsters. We should get a move on.'

'You don't have to be scared of monsters. We can kill anything that comes our way.' Lestia declared with gusto.

Alex disagreed. 'I wouldn't be so certain. Some monsters are tricky to handle. Killing them without injuries might be difficult.' He swung his mace once. 'That said, if a pack of beowolves comes over, I'm game.' A menacing grin crept onto his face.

'We'll pick our fight. Our problem now is finding where the abandoned temple is.' I commented.

Alex shook his head. 'That's not a problem at all.'

'Why is that?'

Alex grinned widely. 'Because I kind of memorized the landscape of the Emerald Forest when I was flying. I saw where the temple is. I know how to get there.'

I was dumbstruck. All I did while flying was panicking and trying to not die.

'Oh, that's just so cool!' Lestia's eyes shone excitedly.

'You are telling me that just by looking at the overhead view, you were able to map the whole forest in your head?' I asked, incredulous.

'Not the whole forest; just what I was able to see. Luckily, I flew quite high and saw a lot of it.' Alex answered matter-of-factly.

If he was telling the truth, this was incredible. 'That's very impressive.'

Alex nodded, 'I am an impressive man.' Circe whacked the back of his head, causing him to grunt. 'Ow.' He rubbed the spot. 'Circe, let me have my moment of being worshipped in peace.'

She commanded disapprovingly, 'stop showing off. Come on; time's a wasting.'

He grumbled, 'You are just jealous because you can't do it.' Circe shrugged in response.

With Alex at the lead, we made our way to the abandoned temple.

-x-x-x-x-

The journey to the temple proved to be uneventful.

I wouldn't say it was dull, although Lestia would have disagreed. We filled the void left by absence of action with conversations.

Alex told us how Circe and he had been childhood friends ever since he could remember. He recounted several interesting episodes the two of them had together and Circe often interjected concisely to correct the exaggerations he sprouted. Lestia introduced her Bladed Leaf, her dual headed halberd, and demonstrated its various functions. I showed them my grenades and explained their functions, opting to talk about my weapons instead of my dubious past.

Before long, we had reached the temple.

It was a circular ruin, crumbling in its dilapidated state. There were twenty pedestals, some of them empty, some of them occupied. 'This must be it.' I muttered.

'It looks more like an auditorium to me,' said Circe.

'School auditorium looks nothing like this,' Lestia commented.

'I meant an ancient auditorium. This looks like an auditorium of the past, rather than a temple,' Circe clarified.

Alex cut in, before a history lesson could commence. 'What it looks like isn't important. We just need to get the relic.'

At a closer distance, I could see that relics were various chess pieces. About a quarter of them were gone already. We entered the temple and looked around. The white rooks, white knights, black bishops and black king pieces were already gone.

'I guess we just take one each?' I considered what piece to take before selecting the white pawn.

Lestia moaned, 'aw… I wanted to take the queen.'

'Oh, I'm sorry,' I apologized, 'I just liked the white pawn because it's the first piece to move in the game. We can change if you want to.'

However, Lestia seemed to have changed her mind. 'Ooh. First piece to move. I like that.' She took the pawn and hugged it tightly.

'As do I.' Circe took the remaining white pawn. She gave a look to Alex to see if he minded; he shrugged indifferently.

With the mission objective fulfilled, I was eager to leave the forest. 'Alex. You know how to get to the cliffs right?'

'Enough to give you a tour on the way.'

'Well then, lead the way. But skip the tour.'

-x-x-x-x-

It just wouldn't have been a proper initiation without monsters, now would it? I had hoped that the journey through the Emerald Forest would be monster free. Much to my chagrin and Lestia's delight, my hope was not to be.

I noticed their presence first, thanks to my sensitive thief ears. There were rustles in the bushes, too soft to be people and too spread out to be by one creature. I placed a hand on Alex's shoulder, bringing him to a stop, while my other hand reached for Fiasco. Alex looked at me with a question in his eyes.

I whispered quietly. 'We are not alone.'

As if on cue, beowolves exploded out of the forest.

A shot from Fiasco and Bladed Leaf brought down two beowolves. A cone of fire from Circe removed two more. However, it was not sufficient to break the initial charge and soon we were in their striking range. Alex and Lestia entered the melee. Circe moved into safety behind Alex, taking potshots wherever she could with controlled blasts of dust. I disengaged myself from the three and majority of the monsters.

I wished I had my flashbang. That was my favorite form of non-lethal crowd control and was just as effective, if not more so, against beowolves as they were to humans. Its downside of stunning my allies would have been mitigated by a beforehand warning to close their eyes and block their ears.

I surveyed the situation, all the while silently eliminating beowolves with my knife throws whenever I could.

There was no need to worry about Alex; he was in his element in a close-combat, smiting down beowolves unlucky enough to be in his mace's range like a god of war. His shield control was incredible and none of the beowolves managed to touch him or Circe.

Lestia was agile and untouchable. Combining her quick dexterity with her weapon's recoil, she leapt in and out of combat, dismembering beowolves without being hit.

Circe, however, was not doing very well. While she sustained no damage because of Alex, she also was not doing much harm to the monsters. With the number of beowolves focusing on Alex increasing, it would not be long before one of them broke through and landed a blow on her.

A noise to my right gave me a split second warning to dodge a swipe. With a howl, the monster charged towards me. I armed a grenade, tossed it into its open jaws then stabbed the mouth shut with a knife. I kicked the beowolf away from me into another one, sealing both their fates in the ensuing explosion.

I repaid my attention to Circe, just in time to see a beowolf getting past Alex and lunging towards her. A shot from Fiasco intercepted it and sent the monster to the ground, injured. As I watched out for her, I noticed something. Circe was eyeing Lestia constantly, who was close by and seemingly having the time of her life.

Pieces clicked.

I yelled, 'Lestia. Come here for a second!'

Lestia turned towards me, savage joy radiant on her face. Many beowolves turned towards me as well, their expressions much more hostile than Lestia's. They all rushed towards me. Breezing through the beowolves, Lestia reached me easily. The beowolves rarely managed to reach me in one piece.

Once Lestia was by my side and far from the other two, I called out again. 'Circe, now!'

A look of surprise flashed on her face, followed by gratitude. Flames blazed from her gauntlet. Alex expanded his shield big enough to cover his whole body, faced Circe, planted his shield to the ground and braced himself. Beowolves leapt at his unguarded back.

Poor bastards.

An orb of blaze bursted forth and enveloped them all. It was bright and scorching, enough to heat up my skin to an uncomfortable degree despite the distance. When it dissipated, the only two left standing were Circe and Alex, surrounded by lumps of ashes and charred flesh. Smoke trailed from the huntsman.

'Oh wow.' Lestia admired.

The remaining beowolves began pulling back, frightened by the fire. Lestia killed as many as she could chase before returning. Alex and Circe came over.

'It's been a while since I did that.' Circe stated placidly.

'I wish you pulled your punches when you do that. I'm not fireproof, you know.' Alex retorted.

Ignoring the jibe, Circe inquired me. 'How did you know?'

'A hunch, I guess.'

Circe gave a little bow. 'You have my thanks.'

I protested. 'No, no. Thanks for holding back for my partner's safety.'

Lestia nodded. 'I don't think I could have withstood something like that. That was brilliant.' She hugged the purple haired girl. Circe gave a small 'eep' at the sudden embrace.

Alex took a whiff at his armor and grimaced. 'Ugh, I smell like a crematory. Could do with a bath.'

'Let's get out of here, I've had enough of this forest,' I said.

-x-x-x-x-

The rest of the journey back to the cliff went without a hitch, unless you counted crossing of the bridge at the bottom of the cliff. For some reason, the bridge/ruin structure had collapsed in multiple places and was useless. We had to improvise.

Currently, we were back in the assembly area, standing on the stage as Professor Ozpin addressed us. 'Circe Arganets, Lestia Glass, Alex Marsdonia, Balthazar Venarius. The four of you retrieved the white pawn pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team BLAC.' I considered our team name. Hmm. Team BLAC. I guess that was not the worst name. It could easily have been Team CALB.

'Led by… Balthazar Venarius.' I looked at my teammates to congratulate the leader then processed what the headmaster has just said. Balthazar Venarius? Wait a minute, something had to be wrong. That was my name! I couldn't have become the leader!

'Yay, Balthazar!' Lestia's exclaimed, slicing right through my denial.

'Nice going,' Alex congratulated me and clapped my back.

Holy shit. It was really happening. Ozpin really did place me as a leader.

As the enthusiastic Lestia half led, half dragged me off the stage, my mind went into a meltdown.

Why did I become the leader? I did not want to be a leader. Why couldn't it have been Circe, who was so calm, collected and charismatic; or Alex, who was powerful and talented; or Lestia, who never hesitated, always full of conviction? I was a thief, not a leader of warriors. What made him think I could do this kind of thing? I will inevitably ruin my team.

'I think the headmaster made a wise choice.' Circe's voice cut through my panic.

'Huh?'

'I think among the four of us, you are the best fit to be a leader.'

I looked at her. Circe did not waver, facing me. I could feel the sincerity from her. Slowly, my turmoil receded. 'Thanks.' I managed.

Wordlessly, she faced the stages again.

Professor Ozpin was announcing the last of the team. 'And finally, Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee and Yang Xiao Long…' A name caught my attention. Weiss Schnee? The heiress to the Schnee Dust Company was here? I looked up.

My breath left. Up on the stage, along with her team, was none other than the girl in white. Oh my god. She wasn't some girl whose family had strong ties with Schnee Dust Company; she was the freaking heiress herself.

And I had used a grenade on her.

'Looks like things are shaping up to be an…interesting year.' I heard Professor Ozpin say.

And possibly my last.

-x-x-x-x-

**A/N: Oh, dear, merciful angels. This writing stuff is tough, although enjoyable. Still, I managed to get this chapter out rather fast though. Quite happy**

**From this point on though, the plot will start to deviate and become more original. I feel that up till now, it was quite worth following the plot, but now new events should rise.**

**Welcomes ideas or just simple comments. Or just greetings.**


	5. Chapter 5: A Tie Wrongly Tied

**DISCLAIMER: Those that ought to belong to others shall belong to their respective owners. Those that ought to belong to me, if any, shall belong to me.**

-x-x-x-x-

A Tie Wrongly Tied

Beacon truly was a place of learning, it seemed. It did not take me two days to learn that I hated this uniform.

It consisted of a blue vest, a red tie and a black suit that had the audacity to be lined in gold. I detested all three pieces with equal venom. The blue vest was scratchy and heat-absorbent. The red tie was insufferable, forever refusing to be properly tied and proving exceptional in entrapment of heat. The black suit was… It reminded me of days as a con artist, to say the least, and those were some dark times. However, the worst thing about the uniform, if I were to put my finger on the matter, was the fact that it was absolutely garbage to be wearing in a fight.

This was a real pity because I was in a fight.

The mace swung right in front of my face with an inch to spare. I found that a bit too close for comfort so backpedalled from my assaulter. Unwilling to relinquish the advantage of being the only one armed, Alex gave chase and returned me back into his weapon's range. Damn it, this guy does not go easy against targets at disadvantage.

A flurry of swings and swipes came and I dodged them all, albeit not as easily as I would have wanted. Still, I had been a thief for a good fraction of my life; when it came to evading, I was not going to lose. An overhead blow; I shifted to my side so that it swiped harmlessly to my left. A horizontal swing; I ducked out of the way. Alex's leg tried to go for a sweep; I somersaulted over it. As I rolled on the ground to break my fall, an instinct told me a strike was coming. I heeded it and extended my roll, narrowly avoiding the instrument of pain that slammed into the spot I previously was. I picked myself off the ground, preparing for further attacks.

Alex had a grin plastered on his face, giving me a sense that he was finding our sparring entertaining. I was breathing heavy, desperate to find a way to not lose despite the odds.

'Your tie is wrong, by the way,' he muttered. Damn this blasted tie.

'Your advice is appreciated.' I kept my eyes on the mace, my reply short.

'Come on, Balthazar. Loosen up a…' Before he finished, the mace lunged forward.

I had been expecting that; attacking in midst of a sentence was like the oldest trick in the book of dirty street fighting; the sort of fights I had been involved in for the majority of my life. I sidestepped it and closed the distance between us, intent on attacking his wrist to break his grip on his weapon while it was past me. I raised my hands and was about to strike… when a slam came from my right, flinging me to the side.

I soared a bit of distance before the painful and humiliating landing. Although my aura had protected me from physical damage, it did not prevent my disorientation. For a moment, the concept of top and bottom merged into one. It took a wobbly second or five for them to separate. When I finally distinguished the two enough to look up, a hand was outstretched, waiting for me. Behind it was the Lestia's beaming face, the only clear image among the disorderly world. I held on and pulled myself up.

'Which is a better weapon? A sharp one the enemy expects or the blunt one he does not perceive?' Alex asked. I did not answer, mulling over the rhetorical question. Although the odds had been against me, I still had hoped to stand my ground, or at least make Alex work for the victory. Apparently the gap in combat prowess between a trained and an untrained cadet was larger than I had first imagined. It was irrational for me to be upset at my shortcoming but I was anyway.

Lestia jostled my head. 'Cheer up, Balthazar. You would have totally kicked Alex's ass with a weapon.' She stretched my cheeks upwards to make a smile. Not missing a beat, Alex took a snap of my expression on his scroll.

'Ugh. Gedd obb me.' I yanked her hands away. Normally her fooling around would have cheered me up but it wasn't having any effect now. I snatched Alex's scroll, deleted the picture and drained all the charges in the battery with malfunction just for spite. The scroll flickered and died in my hands, drawing the eyes of my two team members. I tossed it back to Alex.

Lestia intercepted in mid-air. 'Ooh. It's your semblance, isn't it? The scroll's broken now.' She tapped it a few times, received no response from the device and handed it to Alex. He repeated her first action and grimaced when he received the same response.

'Wow, not cool, Balthazar. Well, kind of cool, I guess, but still a pain. I had some important documents there.'

'I just drained the battery, go charge it again.' I considered for a second. 'You possibly might need a new battery though. Not sure.' I shrugged. I was still upset over my complete loss.

Lestia picked up on my mood. 'Aww, Balty is grumpy! You shouldn't be so down, leader man. There is no need to become upset over fights; you should enjoy them!' She gave me a hug to lessen my agitation. It was a well meant move but a wrong one; physical contact has always caused me uneasiness. Handshakes were fine; they were small and brief. Those more intimate than that always discomfited me.

I pried her off. 'Maybe you can afford to lose battles and still be happy about it. I can't,' I snapped.

Alex frowned, 'Wow there; chill up. I don't see why not. It was just a practice to get you comfortable using your aura. Why would you be so fixated on winning?'

'It's not about winning. It's about…' I did not know how to explain to them.

It was not about winning a fight that was important to me; it was about not losing. Thieves usually never won. We were too weak to match our opponents most of the time. To us, what was important was to not lose because our losses were more often than not expensive. A dead teammate. A client's fee annulled. A possible end to career. These were just some of the possible prices a loss could cost; there were many, many more. Thieves in general were the poor sort, hence the reason for being a thief, and we treasured what we had greatly due to that. For us, it was acceptable to cheat, betray or flee in a fight if that meant we got to keep what little we had.

Right now, I was the weakest member of the team. While I had been skulking around in the dark breaking and entering, most of the students in Beacon had been training and fighting with Grimm and each other. Around me were people who scoffed at things and situations that stirred in me terror and panic. It was only yesterday that I learned everyone had access to aura and not just those who trained as warriors.

Worse off, I was supposed to be the team leader. Me. The guy who was the weakest. The guy who was the least inspiring. The guy who was the most unenthusiastic. The guy who was the biggest joke.

I hated losing but was the biggest loser.

Maybe it was a bad idea coming to Beacon.

Lestia nudged me with her elbow, not aware of my dark mood. 'Come on, Balthazar. Tomorrow's our first Combat Tactics class. We should train as much as we can so as to not make a fool of ourselves.' She grabbed my arm and tried to drag me back to our training area.

I was already making a fool of myself, I thought. If that was so, I was wasting everyone's time here. I pushed her off, causing her to lose balance and fall. My hand went for the emergency smoke grenade; I pulled its pin and released its lever.

'Lestia, are you alright?' Alex was approaching, worried about her. When the grenade detonated, he was also caught in the area of effect of grenade.

As the smoke engulfed me and allowed my escape, my eyes met with hers. They were full of hurt.

It weighed on my mind as I left the scene.

-x-x-x-x-

The Beacon Librarium was much more than just a room full of shelves full of books. Admittedly, that was what most of the library was filled with: shelves full of books. However, the sheer scale had elevated it to a level worthy of a better term. To me, this place seemed to be a comprehensive repository of world's knowledge.

Still, my sample size for libraries was rather small; reading had never truly appealed to me and nobody had ever hired my services to steal something that was being lent out for free. Maybe I was simply being overawed by the first grand library I have seen in my life.

Feeling like a foreign tourist impressed with a museum, I shook my head to clear the digression. I was here to meet Circe, not admire her place of preference. I looked around and did not spot her in vicinity. With my concentration back on the task, my heart fell a bit, realizing the scope of the task.

While the Librarium was a great place to be reading, it was not an easy place to search for people who were reading. This place was clearly larger than the assembly area or the ballroom and the shelves severely obstructed my lines of sight. It was forbidden to raise my voice so I could not call for her either. Circe switched off her scroll in the library so that nobody could disturb her. Although the restricted part of the library was inaccessible to both of us and that reduced my area of search to roughly half, it was still a massive amount of ground to cover. If I wanted to find her, it would have to be through long and tedious manual search on foot.

I steeled my heart. I needed to speak to her. She had told me she thought I was best fit to be the leader among the four of us and it had become necessary for me to know why. If it required me to wander the aisles blindly for hours fruitlessly, so be it. That was a price I was willing to pay.

As I wrecked my brain to remember her choice in books, all I could recall was that they were fictional books. I could not recall what genres the books were though. It looked like that I would have to comb through all of them then.

When I arrived at the fiction section of the library, my jaw dropped. Aw, crap. I have underestimated this task gravely. This sector was not going to be easily explored. No sense in procrastinating then. I began to dart through the passages, looking for the telltale purple hairs of hers.

As I was turning a corner, I bumped into another person. Well, to say I bumped into her was to put it mildly. If I were to be accurate for the sake of integrity, it would have to be said that I crashed into her, tripped and we tumbled down to the ground. However, who cares about integrity these days, right? Let's just say I bumped into someone and leave it at that.

I opened my eyes that were clenched shut during the collision and found myself looking into golden eyes. I have never seen golden eyes before and it captured my attention for a moment. Eventually my scope of perception expanded and I saw her face in its entirety, all the way to her wavy black hair and the bow perched on the top of her head. She was quite a mesmerizing figure. She also had a startled expression on her face. I wondered why.

Then I noticed how close our faces were and how the gap between our bodies was even smaller.

'Uwahh!' I retreated hurriedly. My face felt as if they were on fire. 'I'M SORRY-I DIDN'T PLAN TO FALL ON YOU-IT WAS AN ACCIDENT-PLEASE, DON'T KILL ME-I AM TOO PRETTY TO DIE!' I wasn't even aware of what I was rambling, so intent on apologizing.

To my surprise, she was giggling. She was trying to suppress it but it leaked out. I gawked at her, not understanding what was humorous in the situation. 'Did you just say you were "too pretty to die"?' she asked.

The shame should have killed me. It knew letting me live was crueler. Therefore, it allowed my humiliating existence.

'Angel of Mercy, grant me cardiac arrest now.' I muttered, knocking my head to the bookshelf by my side.

'I think the angel is finding you far too pretty.' Groaning at her reply, I knocked my head again.

'I'm going to ruin my face enough to get killed then. Nice knowing you.' Ugh, I still can't believe I had said that. It was something Harmony and I used to say to each other – a form of apology, one might say – when we were trying to dissipate each other's anger after a fight or something. I knocked my head again.

'That's rather inconsistent. Weren't you begging me not to kill you just now?' Another knock.

'Worst request I've made in the last twenty-four hours.' Another knock.

'I'm Blake, by the way.' She introduced herself.

The worst wave of embarrassment had gone by now and I was able to face her temporarily. 'Balthazar.' I looked at the rows of books again.

'You got your tie wrong, by the way.' Damn this blasted tie.

'The tie and I have not yet established a working relationship. I'll get it right eventually.'

She frowned at my reply. 'What I meant was…'

'Balthazar?' A voice came from behind me and it was frosty enough to halt volcanic eruption in its tracks. Blake saw past me and froze.

'Circe?' I turned. Lo and behold, here was the girl I had originally came to the library for. She was in the girl's uniform, although looking a great deal more comfortable than I felt in mine. Generally, she looked as she always did: relaxed and composed. I had not been expecting the soul chilling glare she was giving me, however. She was furious with me.

She took a step towards and I involuntarily shifted backwards. That was about as far as I got to run away. Any further attempts of escape were found to be impossible, my limbs simply refusing to comply with my desperate pleas to flee. It was as if she had glaciated me. Behind me, I sensed Blake moving away to distance herself from me. Smart girl.

Circe reached me in a calm pace. She grabbed me by the collar and dragged my face to inches from hers. I could see her beautiful violet eyes, her nose and her lips in detail. I would have been bothered by our intimacy if I was not so terrified of her cold expression.

She whispered, 'why do you fracture the peace of the Librarium?'

'I needed to… needed to speak to you.'

'Do not invade my sanctuary and shatter its essence. I will not permit it.' She declared seriously. I gulped and nodded. 'Leave. We shall converse in our dorm, once my anger is past.'

I obediently followed her comment, departing with haste.

-x-x-x-x-

Currently, I was sitting on the floor outside the confines of the library, calming my heart. As you can imagine, the whole incident did nothing to bolster confidence in my leadership capacity. I basked in misery, feeling wretched.

'Well, hello there,' said a male voice. What now? I looked up to find a guy in combat attire. He appeared only a few years my senior. An upperclassman.

'Yes?' I retorted curtly.

'Could I ask for a favor?'

'Do I know you?' I inquired.

'Probably not. Never met you before,' he commented.

'So why are you asking for my help?'

'Because you seemed like you had nothing better to do than to wallow in your sorrow for the next four hours. I thought I would do the school a favor by removing you from sight. I also save you the embarrassment of being seen in that atrocious tie of yours. Instead, you get to stay in a nice, quiet place to contemplate what went wrong today.' He grinned snidely.

I was going to refuse when the last sentence caught my ears.

I could do with a nice, quiet place.

So like the idiot I am, I agreed to help.

-x-x-x-x-

Ten minutes later, we were on the rooftop.

The upperclassman was looking around, as if lost. I was feeling suspicious as all hell, keeping my distance. In general, rooftops were where unsanctified stuffs tended to happen. My hand kept reaching for the emergency smoke grenade that was no longer there. Maybe I should start carrying two of those around.

He scratched his head. 'I could have sworn it was on this building. Damn it.'

I have had it with being led about without an explanation. 'You! Tell me what this is about this insta…' There was a mechanical sound as the upperclassman's leg greaves unfolded to encase his feet. I backed away, checking the surroundings for escape routes for the incoming attack.

The attack never came. 'Wait here for awhile, will you? I'm going to take a look around.' There was a brief whine of charging sound from his sollerets then the guy just blasted straight up at least fifty metres.

He jumped up fifty metres. Jumped.

You know what was the worst part? I was not even shocked anymore. My brain was processing the feat I had just witnessed as something of a norm. It's official; Beacon madness is contagious.

Before my thoughts could continue, he landed lightly in front of me. He dusted himself casually as if it was something he did every day. Maybe it was.

'I found it. We are on the wrong building, it seemed. This way.' He ran towards the edge of the building and jumped down. Go figure. Why did I even consider that he would take the stairs? I followed after him to the edge and looked down. It was about two storeys of a drop. I could make it.

The very fact that I considered the drop manageable showed just how badly Beacon madness had infected me already.

-x-x-x-x-

After another ten minutes later, we were on another rooftop, several blocks away from the original one.

Before me was our destination; something that appeared to be a giant pavilion. When I mean giant, I meant really big. There was a circular area at its centre that I had a sneaking suspicion was a dueling arena; a dueling arena that could have easily housed an airship. The outer ring – probably the spectators' seat – was wide enough to seat at least the entire first year population. The structure looked sturdy, as if it was built to last instead of being pleasing to the eye. All in all, it was an impressive construction.

Or it would have been, if it was not packed full with covered-up furniture. I was starting to see why I was brought here.

'Welcome to the Coliseum. Well, it used to be called that. Now I think it's just a junkyard.' He muttered disapprovingly.

'Let me guess. You want me to clear all these, don't you?'

He clapped delightedly. 'You are quick. I like that in an underling.'

'I am not your underling.' I gritted my teeth.

'I never said you were. I was just sharing my preferences in underlings.' He smiled.

'Whatever. Let's get this over with.' I did not feel like retorting. I just wanted to get on with the work.

He raised his eyebrow and considered me. 'That's it? No violent outburst of protest? No refusal for further cooperation?'

I could not be bothered with all that; all I really wanted was some solitude. 'Can I destroy these?' If I had some school property I could destroy to vent my frustration on, that was a bonus.

He seemed pleased with my question. 'Sure. Knock yourself out. Can even burn them for all I care. Now, let me introduce to you your workmate.' He yelled out, 'Miss Nikos! Come here please!'

From among the junk walked out a red haired girl with vivid green eyes. She was quite tall for a girl and had the athlete's figure. Her stance informed me she was currently on guard. Hmm. To be precise, she was the type that is perpetually on guard. A good fighter, that's a given, and a diligent one. She approached us. 'Hello. Name's Pyrrha Nikos.' She introduced herself politely.

Now that she was closer, my awareness returned to her height. Was she taller than me? I was of average height. She was quite above a girl's average height. It was a distinct possibility.

I realised that my own introductions were in order. 'Balthazar Venarius. First year. Nice to meet you.' The sun was coming out of the clouds, casting its scorching rays on us, so I subconsciously made my way towards the Coliseum's shade. Pyrrha followed.

'I am a first year as well. I'm from Team JNPR,' she stated.

Upon mention of teams, my mood turned gloomy. 'Team BLAC.' I omitted out my leadership role. Hoping to change the subject, I whirled around to find the upperclassman. A thorough scan of surroundings told me he had already left the scene. 'Where is he?'

'Looks like he's gone again,' she replied. She did not seem surprised.

'Does he do this often?' She nodded.

She snuck a peek at my tie. 'Your tie is wrong, by the way.'

'I know, I know; people had been telling me that the whole day. I guess I will fix it once I go back to dorm.'

'Oh,' she muttered. She seemed a bit lost for words. 'I look forward to working with you.' She turned her attention to the discarded bookshelf next to her. With quick strikes she took them apart, stacking the wooden material into a neat pile to the side.

'Likewise.' I began my work as well.

-x-x-x-x-

This warehouse had a lot of weird things. So far, I had found an old military cannon, a portable bathing cubicle, a three-metre high stuffed doll and a statue of a two-faced man – and these were just the things I could think of at the top of my head. I was trying to drag the statue outside but was finding it to be a lot heavier than I can manage.

Simple pushing was not budging it at all. I kicked the thing at the centre out of irritation. The statue wavered, toppled and collapsed to side, shattering into pieces with a crash. Dust poured out, covering the floor in heaps.

Oh, a dust filled statue. Of course. Just the sort of thing this Academy would have lying about.

'Balthazar, are you alright?' Pyrrha's worried voice sounded out. She emerged from wherever she had been working in and inspected all over me, checking for injuries.

I got uncomfortable with her look over. 'Hey, hey. I am fine. The statue fell apart, that's all.'

'I did not mean just that,' said Pyrrha.

'Huh? What do you mean?'

'Balthazar, I don't want to sound presumptuous but it's obvious that you are rather perturbed.'

Her words took me by surprise. 'How… how did you know that?'

'Well. You tossed all the empty flowerpots against the metallic barricade over there, shredded an old school banner into thin ribbons and hammered away those empty paint jars long after they became as flat as sheet.'

Wow. I didn't even know I was doing all these. 'I… don't want to talk about it.'

She flushed, 'I'm sorry. I was just being intrusive, wasn't I? I should mind my own business.'

'No, no. It's not that.' I shook my head. 'Come, let's take a break for awhile, shall we?' We grabbed a pair of rickety chairs and plopped on top of them. 'I will tell you the issue later. Give me awhile to prepare myself,' I requested.

'As you wish,' she nodded.

My curiosity voiced itself, 'so what's your relationship with the guy who brought me here? What kind of a guy is he?'

She let out a noise of surprise. 'Huh? Did he just enlist your help as well?'

So we were in the same shoe. 'Yup. Approached me and asked for my help. Said I could get to be alone with my thoughts. I needed that, so I agreed to this scam of a deal.'

'I do not know anything about him as well; not even his name. He asked for my assistance after I was done with my training. He seemed earnest and I was free for the day so I offered to help.' There was a short span of silence. 'Does this mean I am impeding your desire to be alone?' She asked cautiously.

I shook my hands to deter such thoughts. 'No, no, no. I think it's a good thing you are here. If I was really here alone, I would get all mopey.'

A worried frown creased her brows. 'So what's wrong?'

Sigh. 'I am a team leader,' I blurted.

She smiled at my declaration. 'That's wonderful!' She caught herself. 'What's wrong with being a team leader?'

'There's nothing wrong with being a team leader. What's wrong is me. I am the weakest in my team. I never really had warrior training before this. This place is full of people far out of my league. I feel so out of depth that I feel like I could never catch up, much less lead a team. I am scared I will drag my team down when they all have the potential to be the best if it was not me as their leader.'

'Ah.' I looked at her to find her eyeing me fondly.

'Umm, Pyrrha? Why are you looking at me like that?'

That banished the look of affection. 'What do you mean?'

'You were looking at me as if I was a stray cat which finally decided to accept your petting after weeks of aloofness.' Trust me; I knew what I was talking about. Harmony had the exact same look then.

'That's incredibly detailed,' she commented, 'still, I wouldn't say you were wrong. You see, you reminded me of my team's leader.'

'How so?' I had no clue who her leader was; I really did not pay attention during team announcement ceremony. However, if he was able to command someone like her, he must be quite amazing. I could not possibly be like him.

'He is quite insecure, always feeling out of place here. He has problem telling us what to do because he feels he is the worst in the team. He avoids problems instead of colliding them head on.'

'Oh.' Well, that did sound like me. 'You sure you are not talking about me?' I had to ask.

'Quite.' She gave me a knowing smile. 'The rest of the team thinks he is a great leader though.'

'Why is that?'

'Because he is not arrogant. He does not even consider abusing his authority. When he does tell us something, we know it's not for his sake but for all of ours. We are very aware of ourselves but can be blind about the traits of others. He, however, sees us all just as well as he sees himself. His orders are never some impulsive commands to sate his ego.'

I listened in silence.

'Being a leader is about trust, in a way. He trusts our capabilities, we trust his judgment,' she concluded.

I thought about her words. I thought about my teammates. It has only been three or four days I have known them but I felt as if I had known them half my life already. I considered how much I trusted them; with all my heart, I realised. Maybe I could do this leader thing after all.

'Pyrrha, you are wonderful.' I took her hand and kissed the back of it.

She snatched her hand in surprise. Crimson tinged her cheeks, becoming a slight shade lighter than her hair. 'You…are welcome.' She did not stutter. She may get flushed but would not let herself be bashful, I see.

With my mood lifted, I felt restless with boredom. I needed some fun. An idea formed; a wild smile lit my face. 'I'm sick of all these useless furniture; are you? I am thinking of clearing out with them in one shot.'

'How do you plan to do that?'

'We have a military cannon, an inexhaustible supply of scrap material and a mound of dust.' I let her connect the dots.

A flicker of understanding appeared, swiftly replaced by shock. 'You are serious?'

'I wouldn't say that. I am not a serious person. I am more like crazy.' My eyes darted towards the junks before me, analyzing which I can use to create makeshift cannon shells.

'What if the shots damage the school?'

'I think the giant doll over there can be a good fodder for cannon shots, among other things.' I thumbed towards the three-metre tall stuffed animal. 'You in?'

She seemed torn. I grabbed her hand and dragged her into the scrap jungle, eager to blow things apart.

-x-x-x-x-

With my job concluded in the Coliseum – I wished all jobs were as fun as that one –, I had one last order of business today. I stood in front of the door to my room, wondering if I would ever get to leave again once I entered.

If I must die, so I shall; I thought philosophically. The fact that I was resorting to philosophy showed how scared I was. I hardened my resolve and stepped into possible demise.

Lestia, Circe and Alex were all in their nightwear, ready to sleep for the night. They looked up at the sound of the opening door and saw me.

I got tackled to the ground immediately by a green haired blur.

Lestia was not letting me go. Circe closed the book she was reading and shifted her focus to me. Alex had his arms crossed. 'We need to speak, Balthazar,' he announced sternly.

I gulped, waiting for the reprimand. The three of them exchanged glances.

'We are sorry!' They said as one.

Wait. What?

'I'm sorry I pushed you so hard! I just wanted to train with you.' Lestia was tearing up.

'I guess I am guilty of that as well.' Alex mumbled.

'I should not have chased you from the library in such a manner. You are my team leader, after all.' Circe clarified.

'Wait! You got it all wrong,' I shouted, 'I am the one who should be apologizing.' I turned to Alex and Lestia. 'I know you guys were looking out for me, trying to teach me how to use my aura since I only had it for a day.' I turned to Circe. 'I should not have caused so much ruckus in the one place you sought peace. I am extremely sorry.' More looks were exchanged among them.

Lestia was the first to respond. 'Yay! Our leader is back to normal!' She was hugging me now; I tried to unlatch myself as gently as possible.

'So it would appear,' Circe agreed. She was back to her placid self. 'So why did you seek me out?'

'I needed to know something. I already found the answer though.'

'That is pleasing to hear.' She returned to her book. I noticed a small smile on her face.

Alex was about to say something, noticed how Lestia was hogging me and decided he was not going to interrupt. 'Your smoke is some nasty stuff, by the way. You should carry more of it.' He tossed that out there and went to Circe to disturb her reading. She seemed irritated, as expected, but still responded to her friend.

That left me with Lestia. 'I'm sorry, Lestia.' I muttered.

'I know you are,' she replied merrily. 'I'm going to be mad if you make a fool of yourself in the Combat Tactics Class tomorrow.

'Yes, ma'am.'

'So where were you the whole day?'

'Oh, this and that.' I shrugged, or tried to. 'You might have seen me at work. There was a rather big pillar of smoke.'

Look of envy surfaced. 'That was you? No way! Why didn't you invite me? What were you doing?'

This was going to get her mad. 'Nothing much. It just involved a cannon, a bunch of cannonballs and a lot of targets.'

She whacked me. 'I can't believe you left me out! Why would you do such thing; hoarding the fun all alone?'

'Oh, I wouldn't say I was alone,' I teased.

'You did all that with somebody else? Now you are just being mean.'

'I know. I will make it up to you.'

'You know I will hold you to that.' Her eyes were serious.

'Yup.'

'As long as you are aware.' Her hands went to my throat. 'You got your tie wrong, by the way.'

I was getting sick of hearing that. 'Screw the bloody tie. I am going to take it off. I can tie it properly tomorrow.'

Lestia laughed. 'Silly Balthazar. That's not what I meant. I literally meant you got the wrong tie. You are supposed to get the clip-on model.'

I was dumbfounded. Alex had given me this tie to wear; it could not have been that he was unaware… Of course he was aware. Oh, I was going to get him for this.

While I plotted my vengeance against the flame-haired friend, Lestia undid and redid the knot. 'There you go,' she announced. I could tell that it was properly made, just from her contented expression. 'Not bad eh? Now everything's all straightened out.'

My hand reached for it; it felt proper. 'Yeah, it has.'

Lestia got off me at last. 'Well, since you were gone the whole day burning god knows what, you are going to tell me your story.'

I protested, 'but I am sleepy.' I wasn't lying. A yawn was coming every few minutes.

'No buts. You need to know the price of leaving me out of fun. Come along, we have the whole night.'

Refusal was futile. 'I will definitely never leave you behind again.'

'Damn right.'

-x-x-x-x-

**A/N: Right. It's up. This is a filler chapter so I am kind of amazed that it has so much word count in it. If you think the chapter is too long or draggy, please comment. I need to know these things.**

**I managed to get Balthazar to be in contact with two pre-existing characters. I hope they were not OOC. I did keep the interaction rather minimal so even I couldn't have broken them in that short period. Hopefully.**

**I was hoping to have him talk to a guy for his chat with pre-existing character but the girls just outnumber the guys and they just didn't fit. Jaune, Ren and Cardin… Yeah. They did not fit the scenes. They will come soon too, although I make no promises.**


	6. Chapter 6: Chance Encounters

**DISCLAIMER: Those that ought to belong to others shall belong to their respective owners. Those that ought to belong to me, if any, shall belong to me.**

-x-x-x-x-

Chance Encounters

Fun fact: Lestia can run on three and a half hours of sleep and be completely fine the day after.

The experience necessary to learn this fact was much less fun, I assure you. When she said I had the whole night to tell her the story of what I have been doing during the day, I was naïve enough to assume she was being metaphorical. I should have known better.

She pestered me for details of everything. How were the new people I met, how did I destroy the furniture and why did I detonate a smoke grenade in the middle of our training. The last one had been really awkward; it took my everything to get her mind off that.

Anyway, to put it in a nutshell; it was the longest night I have had in awhile and I was feeling its full effect on my body.

I possessed no immunity from sleep deprivation like my partner did. To make matters worse, I did not have a proper dinner last night being busy clearing out the rubbish in the Coliseum. Therefore, hunger and drowsiness were deeply embedded into my system and they were playing hell with my mental faculties.

Currently, I was in the cafeteria for breakfast. In the dimness of my mind, I recalled arriving here with the rest of the Team BLAC. Where are they? Before I could search, however, my fatigue deemed the question insignificant and returned me to a blank state. All other thought processes of higher order were quelled just as entirely. My two weaknesses had absolute control over me.

Although there was nothing I could do about being sleepy, there was a way to reduce my hunger. One overriding directive came from my brain: find appetizing food and obtain them. Everthing else was irrelevant.

I obeyed. If you asked me about the process I wouldn't be able to tell you but somehow I acquired a plate of breakfast consumables, placed myself on a seat and began devouring the subsistence before me. Little by little, my mind was revived.

'Remnant to Balthazar? You're starting to creep me out, you know.' Alex waved his hand in front of my face. I looked up. 'Ah, a reaction. Looks like he's not brain dead after all.'

'Scientifically speaking, a brain dead people can still give involuntary responses to stimuli,' Circe quipped.

Lestia joined in, 'so he's still a zombie? Awesome. I always did want a pet zombie; had been one of my childhood dreams.' She was by my side and at her words my eyes flickered to her. As usual, her plate contained heaps of food. Tantalizing, alluring food.

'You are freaking weird, Lestia. You know that?' I muttered.

'Ah. He speaks. Our zombie is lost.' Alex grinned. Circe rolled her eyes.

Lestia pouted, 'aww. He would have been a cute one too.' She bit into another pancake, as if to console herself. The pancake seemed fabulous. I bit into one as well.

'On what have you been pondering?' Circe was already finishing her meal, not having taken much in the first place. She took a handkerchief and wiped her mouth.

'I wasn't thinking about anything. I just become like this when I'm really hungry. And sleepy.' I shot Lestia an accusatory glare as I growled out the last bit.

Being absolutely oblivious, Lestia chirped delightedly. 'Ooh, I know. You were excited about the Combat Tactics class too, weren't you? I couldn't sleep a wink last night thinking about how awesome it would be!' She was practically bobbing up and down at the thought.

Alex chuckled out. 'If that's so, then you gotta stop snoring while you think. It's irritating enough when you do it in your sleep; doing it while you're awake is inexcusable.'

'Hey! I don't snore!' She shouted indignantly. Then she asked me uncertainly. 'Do I?'

Why would you do this to me the first thing in the morning, Alex? All I wanted to do was to eat to heart's content in peace.

I opted for the path of kindness and cowardice. 'You don't snore.' Gobbling up the last bit of the pancake, I grabbed a waffle.

Lestia seemed relieved. 'See, I don't snore. Balthazar says so.' She stuck out her tongue to Alex before returning to me. 'For that, I will forgive you for eating my food.'

Wait, what? When did I eat her food? I looked at the waffle in my hand. It had the strawberry jam and chocolate spread; her favorite fillings. Oh no. I have been eating her food and was not even aware it.

Alex piped in. 'Actually, leader man, she raises a very interesting point. Why would you take our food instead of just getting them from the counters? It's not like we gotta pay for them or anything.' His tone wasn't accusing, just simply curious.

My face burned with embarrassment. I haven't done this ever since my childhood.

In those days I was often weak and starving. Faced with the possibility of imminent death, the concept of ownership did not hold to me and I often instinctively just grabbed whatever I found that was edible. There were times I stole other's food right before their eyes and paid hefty prices for my bold misdemeanor. Although I was no longer in danger of starving, it seemed the habit had not been completely flushed out of my system; the extreme hunger and weariness must have retriggered it.

Whatever the case, it did not lessen my shame. 'I'm sorry I took your breakfast. I didn't even know I was eating your food! I'll go get some for you right now.' I made to stand, only to be pulled down by Lestia.

'Relax, Balty. I said I forgive you.' She was smiling, letting the matter drop. I relaxed at her generosity and began munching on an apple. Wow, this apple is good.

Circe studied it for awhile then spoke, 'since we are all asking questions, I have one as well. Where did you get that apple? It is not part of the menu.' Huh? I paused and tried to remember where I got this fruit. Where did it come from?

'Hey. That's right! They aren't serving apples today; where did you get that?' Lestia added.

I observed the half-eaten apple in my hand, wrecking my brain to remember its origins. 'Hmm. I can't remember.'

Alex was about to comment when a rather obtrusive outcry came from a table few rows away. It was impossible to miss, like a crack of thunder.

'What do you mean I am overreacting? Something of mine was stolen. Stolen! Don't you dare say this is a small matter!' My attention turned towards the source of the commotion.

The source was none other than Weiss Schnee, formerly known to me as the girl in white. She was sitting with the rest of her team – well, she was standing now, but you get my point. By her side were the two girls I had eavesdropped on in the airship ride to Beacon – I must have heard their names at the end of Initiation but they eluded me – and the golden eyed girl I met in the Librarium yesterday, the one who had introduced herself as Blake. The small girl in red was saying something to Weiss and it was evident from her expression that she was trying to placate the heiress.

As usual, my heart did a double take upon the sight of the heiress. Although the possibility was small, there was always a chance for her to recognize me. I had to get out of here. I began plotting an exit that would attract the least attention when Weiss resumed complaining loudly enough for all nearby to hear her displeasure.

'No, Ruby! I know how many I had. What do you think I am; a dolt?' The girl in red called Ruby said something else. Instantly, Weiss conveyed her outrage. 'Don't tell me that it's just an apple! What's important about the apple is that it was my possession! Something that's mine got stolen!'

Did she just say an apple? The gazes of the members of Team BLAC went to the half-consumed fruit resting in my hand. There was a stretch of tense silence.

'You didn't.' Alex muttered, voicing out for the three of them.

'I really don't know.' I squeaked. I wondered if I looked as terrified as I felt.

'I think you should hide that.' Circe opined, being the ever practical one. There was a slight edge to her tone, as if something was fraying her patience. Is she mad at me? Well, regardless, her advice was a sound one. I almost followed it. Almost.

Are you aware of the difference between a man who survived and a man who almost survived? The distinction seems small but is painfully contrasting. Almost is an incredibly deceptive word.

I'll say one thing; Fortune knows how to scoff at my affairs. As I almost hid the apple out of people's sight, Weiss Schnee turned towards my direction. Despite the numerous people around me, our eyes met. Then hers shifted towards my hand. A flicker of confusion shone in her face, rapidly replaced with that of anger.

A flash of what was to come played in my head. She would approach me and nothing would stop her. She would brand me a thief publicly and the apple in my hand would condemn me. With a reputation of a thief, my social standing will deteriorate and I shall become an outcast. Four years of isolation and seclusion awaited me, followed by a bitter end.

I might be being slightly overdramatic. What can I say; that girl is scary.

As a thief, I have learned many things most people have not. One of them was the wisdom of cowardice.

Before she had taken even one step towards me, I was already gone amidst the crowd.

-x-x-x-x-

When I wish not to be found, I can do it quite well. I have done this against the police, rival thieves and angry clients in the past. Suffice to say, a huntress cadet in training had no real chance finding me if I really put my mind against it. However, this only held true if my freedom of movement was not restricted. If circumstances were to force my whereabouts in my stead, the probability of my discovery and capture rose significantly.

Unfortunately, having to attend a class was one such circumstance.

At the last possible second, I entered the Combat Tactics classroom. It was similar to any other lecture rooms. The key difference was the podium. For other lessons, a variety of things were on the stage where the professors taught. Whiteboard, tables, chairs; these kind of things. The podium for this room was strangely empty.

As I had hoped, most of the seats were filled up. Praying to Fortune that Weiss would not spot me, I dashed to the last remaining empty seat in the back row. I kept my head down just in case of an unlucky eye contact. Call me paranoid, but it has happened once before. Knowing my luck, it could happen again. I waited in silence for her scream as she located me.

It did not happen. It looked like I dodged the bullet for now.

By my side, two students were merrily chatting away, unaware of my plight. 'Do you think Weiss forgot that she has class? She seemed really pissed just now.' At mention of the heiress, my head snapped to the left. My eyes bulged out at whom I found.

Holy crap. I hate you, Fortune.

Right beside me were the two of Weiss's team. The one called Ruby and her elder sister, the blond girl. Luckily, they were not aware of me and I was going to do everything in my power to maintain that. I looked straight forward to ensure I remained unnoticed.

Ruby replied to her sister, 'I don't think so, Yang. Weiss wouldn't miss class for the world.' A sigh escaped her lips. 'I just hope whoever sitting beside her leaves her alone, for their own sake.'

'Well, as long it isn't me, I wanna watch. Ought to be more fun than class.' The one called Yang grinned expectantly.

Whatever Ruby would have said to that would remain forever unsaid because at that moment the professor for Combat Tactics lesson walked up to the podium – in all honesty, it looked more like a dueling area to me. Silence abruptly fell in the class, everyone's focus converging on the lone figure in front of us. He was rather young, seemingly only a few years above my age. He was wearing a cloak which hid his body. He was above average height but only slightly so. His hair was black and simple. All in all, he seemed like an everyday guy. However, he captivated all our attention.

Today – three days after the initiation – was the first Combat Tactics class of the year. However, the class was already semi-famous among the students. The reason for this was simple; there had been no information regarding the professor conducting the lessons. When message for lesson preparation came through our scrolls, there had been only two instructions; the venue and to be armed for the class. Nothing else. The professor had been a complete mystery.

Guess my surprise when I realised that I have met the professor previously.

There was no mistake. The professor for Combat Tactics class was none other than the upperclassman who had me clean up the Coliseum the day before. I shook my head. At no point had the man said he was an upperclassman. I had assumed that by myself since he was only a few years older than me.

The fact that he became a professor in Beacon at such young age was intriguing. I wondered just how strong he was.

His pace was leisurely, giving the impression of him being lazy. He seemed unaware of the stares everyone was giving him. He stood in the centre of the empty stage and inspected us with a glance over.

'Sup, people. I'm your teacher.' He waved in a decidedly informal manner.

'As you all know, this is the Combat Tactics class. Used to be taught by Havelock but the old man got some family stuff in his hometown.' He took out a canned drink from his pocket.

'When Havelock quit, somebody had to replace him, of course. You can't have a class with just a bunch of kids and no adults, can you?' He opened the can with an audible _click._

'I can understand Ozpin's situation; he needed a teacher. What I do not understand is this.' He paused and began to drink. At first, I thought it would just be a sip. Soon, I realised he was downing the can in one shot. Once he finished, he continued on speaking.

'Why would he, in the name of all things holy and sacred, think it would be a good idea to MAKE ME A TEACHER?!' The can was crushed in his hands.

Nobody answered. Really, how do you answer that?

The professor – I was starting to doubt whether that was an appropriate title – looked at the crumpled can in his hand. He shrugged and it disappeared into the folds of his cloak. His composure seemed to be back, his momentary irritation banished.

'My name's Melanis Ithel. First name is for those who consider me your friend or instructor. Ithel is for those who wish to ask me out on a date; guys are expressly forbidden from pronouncing the word.' A small laughter rang out, breaking the uncomfortable silence from before.

He continued with his introduction. 'Those who call me professor or sir will be assumed hostile and dealt with prejudice. I've not earned the right, nor do I possess the desire, to be addressed with such a title.' He paused again to let the last statement sink in.

'I'm here to teach you how to fight and how to defend. And it's my philosophy that experience is the best teacher; better than me, at least.'

He looked around, examining us again. 'Who is the strongest here?' was his simple question. Only two had enough conviction to reply immediately.

'I am,' came from Yang. It wasn't loud but was clear enough to carry across the room.

A shout emerged from the other end of the class. 'Me!' I recognized Alex's voice.

A delighted smirk appeared on Melanis's face. 'Ladies and gentlemen. Here are the first two volunteers of the Combat Tactics class. Two of you, come on down.'

The podium was indeed a dueling area after all.

-x-x-x-x-

Everyone was excited. There were chattering everywhere. Bets were made and speculations were born in the crowd.

'Gooo, Yang! Strongest huntress in Beacon!' Ruby cheered loudly for her sister.

Being swept in the moment, I tossed caution to the wind and encouraged my friend as well. 'Go Alex! Show her who's boss!'

The girl glared at me when she heard me cheer the opposition. 'Yang will totally crush that guy. There's no way she will lose to anyone.'

I knew arguing with a girl two years younger was childish but could not stop myself. 'Well, that's funny. Cuz I was thinking the exact same thing.'

'You thought that Yang'll crush that guy too?' A puzzled expression appeared.

'No! I mean there's no way Alex will lose to anyone.'

'I'm sorry but you're in for some disappointment then.' She crossed her arms.

I mimicked her action. 'I toss that right back at you.'

We both huffed and turned away from each other.

Of course, there were two people more thrilled than anybody else with the situation. They eyed each other as Melanis briefed them regarding the conditions for victory.

'The rules are simple. The battle is over when one yields to the other or I deem it impossible to continue. Everything short of permanent injuries or death is permitted. All we clear?' Both sides nodded. 'Any time you are ready then.' With that, he stepped out of the podium and grabbed a seat to join the spectators.

Unlike my initial expectations, they did not immediately leap into combat. This told me two things about Yang; the blond girl was sharp enough to perceive Alex as a threat and she was formidable enough for Alex to perceive her as a threat.

They eyed each other, circling the area. She had her gauntlets up and Alex's mace and shield were drawn and ready. The atmosphere steadily got tenser and soon all conversations died down. The air felt too heavy to breathe; my breaths quickened.

When Alex spoke, it could be heard by all despite its quietness. 'I hope you're not the type that cries after losing.' Typical Alex, giving lip no matter the situation.

'Just for that, I'm gonna smash your face in, tincan.'

'Giving me names already, sweetheart? I love a fast woman.'

'Doubt you can keep up.' A predatory grin settled on her face.

'Let's find out, goldie. Let's find out.' He had a likewise expression.

They surged towards each other.

The _ka-chenk _of guns being cocked rang through the air. An instant later, Yang accelerated mid-air with a shotgun blast from her gauntlets. Alex reacted instantly, bringing up his shield. Her fist collided with it with another shotgun blast. However, the punch was ineffective; Alex took it without even budging. He countered with a shield slam that flung her away, although no damage was done because of her block with the gauntlets.

Before she even landed, Alex darted forward. She saw him coming and modified her trajectory towards him with another shot. The mace bludgeoned down on her as her right hook landed solidly on his chest. Yang was brought to her knees. Alex staggered backwards. Both shirked off the attacks and continued on.

Alex swiped again but overextended. Yang ducked under the swing and launched an uppercut. The blow connected but didn't faze him one bit. He just pulled back the mace and struck her with its pommel. He followed up with a bash with his shield's edge and a heavy thrust with his mace. Yang avoided the former and blocked the latter, but from her grimace I could tell the impact jarred her. However, her pained expression did not last long as she redoubled her efforts with the melee.

She dodged an incoming strike with a somersault and turned it into a launch with a shot. Her timing was perfect, for Alex's stance had not yet recovered after his missed attack and his guard was open. She rolled as she landed by his feet. She translated the roll into a leg sweep, tripping the huntsman. She followed up the disable with a downward punch. It would have been bad for Alex if his shield wasn't up. Knowing her attack has failed, she backed up out of his reach. Using the brief lapse, Alex regained his footings. The two immediately returned to the fray.

My confidence in Alex's victory was a bit shaken by this point. Before, I was convinced of his victory; I simply did not believe it possible there were other monsters in this academy of Alex's caliber. Now, I knew Yang had a fair chance.

In terms of strength, Alex definitely had the upper edge. However, strength alone did not guarantee victories in a battle. Yang fought fluidly, sneaking attacks in from all directions while being hard to hit. Still, Alex's shield control was masterful. If she attacked his left, her attacks were futile and only opened her defences for his counterattacks. She soon realised this and only approached him from his right. However, the mace awaited her there. Each blow she landed came with high price.

After what seemed like hundreds of exchanges, they disengaged, sizing up each other now that they had traded blows. It was an interlude of sorts.

Ruby whispered in awe, 'wow, I've never seen anyone face off Yang like that.'

'Something tells me it's going to become crazier from this point on.' I whispered back.

Down on the podium, Yang and Alex were having their own conversation.

'Damn, goldie. You hit hard.'

'Not bad yourself, tincan. But you gotta let the girl in some more. You'll never get a date otherwise.'

'Sorry, lady. Already taken.'

'Aww, you're breaking my heart.'

'Let me make it up to you.'

'I look forward to it.' All the spent shotgun round casings ejected from her gauntlet and were deftly reloaded.

Just like that, the round two began.

The shots from her gauntlets have changed, looking more like flare than the shotgun. It gave her long range capabilities. She rained shot after shot at Alex, whittling him down from distance, safe from his reprisal.

Alex, however, had a trick up his sleeve as well. His mace began to glow with dust. Wow, I did not know it could do that. When it was fully alight with yellow, he charged towards her. He moved like lightning, many times faster than before. He barreled through the barrage with his shield at the front and closed the distance between the two in a blink of an eye. Yang did not even get a chance to defend before the mace sent her flying into one of the walls.

Alex was not the one to wait for his enemy to get back up to her feet. He chased her to the wall. His mace glowed with red as he slammed it down on her. Jets of flame erupted.

I thought the fight was over then. I was wrong.

The fire that burned was not from the mace. It was from Yang herself. She was changed now, her body blazing. She executed a flurry of strikes, each attack much more aggressive and wilder than before. Her blows were rapid and accompanied with waves of flame. Alex was driven back slowly, being unable to attack and could only defend. Even with all his concentration on the task, his defence began to falter and he obtained damage. He was going to lose at this rate.

All of a sudden, Alex changed his tactic. He abandoned his guard, taking in full some hits, and went for the assault. His mace was glowing light blue. Shards of ice crystallized, tearing into Yang. She was sent flying backwards. The mist that rose with the ice obstructed my view so I was unable to determine her condition

'I hope her hair's okay.' Ruby muttered softly. It seemed a silly thing to worry about but she seemed genuinely concerned.

'What's so special about her hair?' I asked, curious.

Before she could answer, Yang's furious shout filled the room. 'YOU SONOVABITCH!' The aggregate temperature soared a few degrees as her flames intensified.

She leapt towards him and dished out the pain. Alex's reflexes saved him from many hits but for each blows he avoided, three pummeled into him. Her punches were knocking him around. Yang was like demon possessed, smiting Alex for his transgression. She finished her rampage by hammering Alex into the ground. The floor cracked and splintered from the force.

'Yay, Yang! Team RWBY wins!' Ruby cheered happily. Mumblings began in the class, many assuming the same conclusion as the girl beside me.

I was not convinced; my scroll was telling me Alex still had some aura left. 'You might want to sit down. Don't write off Alex yet.'

Alex did not disappoint; silence returned as Alex, now torn and bloody, rose from the ground. The fact that he was so injured despite the aura protecting and healing him was testament to Yang's strength. The fact that he still had aura left was testament to Alex's.

'You, goldie, are one of a kind.' Alex chuckled. Yang looked a bit surprised, as if she did not expect him up after all the beatings he took. Her eye had lost the red glow; it seemed the initial fury that had propelled her attacks were past.

Alex continued, 'allow me to repay you for that magnificent display.' He closed his eyes and chanted gently. I doubted anybody but Yang would have heard it. I only knew what he was saying because I have heard the verse before.

'_**Blessed is the one whose soul is laid bare before the others.'**_

My stomach churned with excitement. Here it was: Alex's semblance. I have only seen it once before and it was one hell of a thing.

A golden phantasm formed around him. It was about three metres tall and radiant in its illuminance. It was encased in scale armor and was armed with a mace and shield just like Alex's, although much bigger. Only the top half of its body had materialized and it hung behind/above Alex as if it were a spirit haunting him. It mimicked Alex's movement, moving its limbs when Alex moved his. Alex made a whipping motion with his mace. The specter's mace connected with the ground and gouged it out

'Wooooah. What is that?' Ruby asked in awe.

'He calls it the "Blessied One". It's like a corporeal projection of his aura.' I explained.

'Corporal project what?'

'It's like a ghost armor.' I simplified.

'That's so awesome.' She sounded like a child looking at a superhero.

It seemed that she was not the only one amazed. Everyone was enthralled by the phantasm, looking at it as if it was a celestial entity. I couldn't fault them; I had the exact impression when I first saw it as well. Yang seemed to be beaming at the prospect of battling such a thing. Her fire began to build up in ferocity once more and her eyes regained its scarlet qualities. Both of them geared up, ready for the final round.

It was not to be.

'That is enough.' Melanis interrupted from his seat. He strolled into between the two of them and stood right in the center. His cloak was swept back, revealing his gauntlets and greaves to be unfolded and combat ready. Although his tone was casual, his demeanor conveyed his seriousness.

Yang and Alex's battle fury stifled, blunted by the professor's command.

'Melanis, we were just about to wrap up.' Alex protested.

'Yeah, I was this close to kicking his ass.' Yang agreed.

Melanis loosened up a little in his stance and rebutted. 'The condition for the battle's end was when one yielded to the other or when I deemed it impossible to continue. Looking at the classroom, I don't consider it suitable for you to carry on. This duel is over; it's a draw.'

He had a point. The room was wrecked. One of the walls was pulverized and the floor looked as if it had been served with an aerial bombardment. The two combatants looked worse for wear. Their auras were mostly depleted, severely diminishing the healing of their wounds. I suspected that had it been any other normal students in such a state, the situation might have been very dire for them. If they really did duke it out, it might lead to a perilous situation.

Alex and Yang knew this as well and stood down. They were not simply letting it go though. From the glimmer in their eyes, there was definitely going be a rematch in the future; they just needed to find a place they could ravage without concern.

Seeing their aggressiveness curbed, Melanis addressed the rest of the students. 'Your assignment to be completed by next class is battle assessment. I want you to analyze everything: their strong points, their weak points, their mistakes. I also want a prediction for today's fight's conclusion; who would have won? Finally, I want you to pick one of the two and give me a fight plan against him or her. If you were facing one of them, what is your strategy? How can you win?'

He turned his attention back to the two duelists. 'Of course, you two are exempt from this assignment. I'm sure it isn't necessary; you're already thinking about the fight. For you two, there's something else; you get to clean up after your mess.' He gestured to the classroom in general.

'The rest of you, dismissed. Staying back to help either of them is not permitted.'

So ended our first Combat Tactics class.

-x-x-x-x-

With the ban on assisting Alex and Yang's clean up in place, I left the classroom with Ruby. We discussed the battle and debated on who would have been the victor. She proved to be rather knowledgeable pertaining to weapons and combat and made admirable cases for her sister. I enjoyed our little back-and-forth.

In fact, I enjoyed it to such an extent that I forgot why I had to sneak into the class and had taken the seat beside her in the first place.

'Hey you, apple thief!' came from behind me, kindly jolting my memory.

I should have bolted. Instead, I turned towards her like an idiot. Weiss Schnee was already approaching me, her rapier drawn. Knowing what's bad for me, I backed away until the wall halted my retreat. Her rapier rested close to my throat, filling me with the sense of déjà vu. This time though, I had no visor to hide my identity or a flashbang to incapacitate her. Maybe I should carry the flashbangs around after all.

'Weiss, what are you doing?' Ruby looked distraught. 'You don't have to stab him just because his friend fought against Yang. He's a nice guy.'

'What are you talking about?' Weiss looked at her confusedly. 'Actually, it doesn't matter. This is the guy who stole my apple this morning.'

Ruby looked startled. 'Is this true?'

Normally, I would have lied myself out. However, my mind was clouded with fear of Weiss and functioned like shit. All it managed in my defence was 'uhm. It was an accident?' Well done, brain. Top performance. My lawyer would have wept at the defence if he was here.

Ignoring my sarcastic intentions, the brain was encouraged by the praise and reminded me that Weiss had heard my voice before and I have just spoken to her. I became aghast.

Apparently though, Weiss did not recognize my voice. She just seemed please with my confession. 'See, I wasn't mistaken. My apple really was stolen.' She told Ruby haughtily.

One positive thing about being terrified was that the adrenaline was kickstarting my mind. I still might be able to weasel out of this situation. 'Actually, I found that apple on the floor. I didn't know whose it was, since there wasn't a name on it or anything, so I decided to just take it.'

Weiss paused to consider the plausibility of my words. 'If so, then why did you run away when our eyes met?'

'Well, you were being terrifying and the apple was already half-eaten at that point; there was no way to return it. I thought I should make myself scarce.' I replied.

Ruby, being the trusting type, seemed to accept my explanation. 'See, Weiss. It's just a misunderstan…' Ruby's words never got completed as another voice interrupted halfway.

'Remove your rapier from my leader, Schnee.' The voice was chilling and frosty and it made my spine tingle with its venom.

All three looked at the speaker. It was Circe, actually looking enraged; the anger she displayed when I raided the library was jovial compared to now. The situation was getting from bad to worse.

Just when I was getting the girl cooled down too. Goddammit. 'Hi, Circe, this isn't what it looks like.' I tried to salvage the situation, hoping against hope.

It didn't help that Weiss became just as hostile. 'Well, if it isn't the Arganets. My, what honor. You actually deigned to speak to me.' Aw, great. It sounded like they knew each other and weren't really the best of buddies. Although Weiss's rapier still pointed at my throat, I was practically gone from her attention, replaced by Circe.

'I won't repeat; release Balthazar.' The purple haired girl commanded frigidly. Her CouP De Grace began to burn.

'Make me, Arganets.' I saw the cylinder rotate on the rapier to show light blue.

This was bad. If they unleashed their attacks, there was going to be a lot of collateral damage, Ruby and myself included. I reached for my barrier grenade and judged where I could toss it to cover both of us.

It never came to that, however.

At that moment, Melanis exited his classroom. His entirely sudden appearance took all of us by surprise, lending him enough time to discover the scene. 'You know, I love watching fights. But not when when my property can be damaged,' he said.

As he had done with Yang and Alex, he walked between the two girls. He carried on, not allowing any of us the time to speak. 'I assume you consider blasting each other to bits and dust perfectly adequate. However, I do not. You would have damaged the corridor and possibly the door. Vandalism's a serious offense.' Right, the students getting injured was perfectly acceptable, I thought.

'There will have to be punishment. Give me your names.' He ordered.

There was a moment of hesitation.

'Weiss Schnee.' Weiss answered, the fight leaving her. She lowered the tip of her rapier, away from my throat.

Seeing her opponent complying with the professor, Circe followed suit. 'Circe Arganets.'

His eyes rose at the names. 'Ah, I see.' He did not share what he saw but instead dismissed the notion with a shrug. 'I will need to speak to your team leaders. Who are they?'

Ruby raised her hand and murmured, 'uhm. I am the leader of Weiss.'

'And I'm the leader of Circe.' I muttered.

Melanis looked at the two of us, then at the other two. His gaze flickered back to me again. 'Ah, it's you. Splendid.' He did not elaborate on our acquaintance further. 'Well, you didn't really do a good job handling a member of your team.' He turned to Ruby. 'The same goes for you, lady. Come to my office, we have to discuss your punishment.' He led the way.

Weiss spoke up. 'Prof – Melanis, they had nothing to do with this. If you're giving punishment, it should be to me.' She looked troubled.

Melanis did not even turn around to retort. 'When a team member makes a mistake, on the leader's head the prices fall.'

Without another word, Ruby and I trailed after him, leaving the other two behind.

-x-x-x-x-

The professor's office was exquisite and spacious. There seemed to be a lot of bizarre equipment. Some of them would probably have fetched a pretty penny in the market.

Melanis let us in hospitably. 'Not bad, eh? Belongs to the old man Havelock. The geezer was a nutter but he knew how to decorate. Come, have a seat.' He gestured to the coach in the middle of the room.

I would have admired the interior design fully if the circumstances were more pleasant. Ruby seemed even more troubled than I, her hands coiling around her skirt. Melanis saw the two of us and barked out a laughter. 'Oh, cheer up, you two. I don't bite.'

Ruby began to apologise for her friend. 'I'm sorry, profe…'

'Hold it. No calling me professor. Melanis will do.'

'I'm sorry about Weiss, Melanis. She's usually a lot nicer. Well, kind of nicer…' Her sentence trailed off weakly.

Melanis nodded. 'And you. Emo boy. What do have to say about your friend?'

I ignored his jibe, since I was in the position of having to defend my friend's case to him. 'Circe isn't the type to just start fights irresponsibly. I doubt she would have actually attacked Weiss.' He nodded at my answer again.

'What are your names?'

'I'm Balthazar Venarius.'

'Ruby Rose.'

'Well, Balthazar and Ruby. I must ask you; do you know what sort of family the two girls have?'

At mention of their families, dots began to connect. So that's why Circe was being so vicious.

'Their family both run a dust company,' I answered. Ruby still seemed a bit lost though.

Melanis smiled. 'Yes. And dust business is a brutal industry. There are very bad blood between them.' She was catching on with his clarification. Seeing her comprehend, he continued. 'I need you two to handle the two girls carefully .Try to diffuse the enmity between the two. If not, at least prevent friction.' We both nodded.

He grinned. 'Good. Now, you two are dismissed. I shall send to your respective scrolls details of your team's punishment. It involves the whole team, so you might wanna inform the other members what's coming.'

I groaned; after his thoughtful advice, I was hoping the punishment would be void. It seemed not the case. 'But Melanis, can't you let us off the hooks once? Technically, there was nothing vandalized.' I tried one last desperate attempt.

Ruby looked at him with imploring eyes, her sentiment similar to mine. 'This won't happen again, I promise.'

'Sorry guys; no deal. I need you guys to do something for me. Can't enforce that without the punishment.' We stared at the professor with wide eyes, stunned by such a flippant abuse of authority. He just shrugged at our reactions. 'Hey, if Ozpin empowers me with authority, you can bet your lien that I'm gonna use it.' He spoke as if it was the most logical thing in the word.

With that, we were dismissed.

-x-x-x-x-

**A/N: Annnnd it's done. Oh god. Fighting scenes are a lot harder that I first gave them credit for. I hope it was good. It's pretty experimental for me, so do try to give comment on how it was.**

**I realise that my chapters increase in word count subsequently. I don't know if that is a good thing or not. If things feel draggy, do share with the class. I need to know.**

**Any other form of reviews are welcome to. I really like that number increase for some reason. I probably ain't the only one.**


	7. Chapter 7: Hometown

**DISCLAIMER: Those that ought to belong to others shall belong to their respective owners. Those that ought to belong to me, if any, shall belong to me.**

**AN: Right. I got a question, so I thought the least I could do was reply.**

**Crazygamer921: Actually, I think it's from the Bible. If I recall correctly, Balthazar's the name of one of the three wise men from the east who was there at Jesus's birth. Of course, that's simply where I heard the name 'Balthazar'. He's not actually based on any figure of the past, reality or fiction.**

**I have a birthday coming! 24****th****!**

**Right. Without further ado, read on.**

-x-x-x-x-

Hometown

It had been a week since I have come to Beacon.

Sitting on my bed, looking at my teammates and contemplating, I came to the conclusion that it had been one hell of a week. I couldn't remember the last time I had so much happen in such a small number of days – actually, I could; but let's not sweat the details – and wondered whether it would always be like this from now on.

Still, it had not been all losses and no gains. I got to unlock my aura. I watched some incredible fights. I was given a room to sleep in and food to feast on. And most importantly of all, I met new friends. While I would rather get pecked by a flight of nevermores to death than to state it aloud, I had no trouble internally admitting how important they were to me already.

It had always been like that; as a thief, friendships had been a scarce commodity. I always valued them greatly when they came.

Lestia was at her desk, working on her battle assessment for Melanis. She really took the Battle Tactics class seriously. Ever since the bout, she had been working on the homework, pretty much forsaking all other assignments – I would need to help her catch up on those later. Her essay was at least eight pages long – which was thrice the length of mine – and did not seem to be yet complete. Not all of the pages were filled with words though. She opted to use pictographs in her explanations and she used them rather well. All in all, she was really fired about the task.

Alex was missing as usual. Ever since the duel, all his time could be summed with one word: training. It seemed that being punched the crap out was a great motivation for him. In fact, his drive to become stronger was so great that he was even cutting down his time with Circe. Even when he was with us he was often distracted, his mind presumably occupied by the thoughts of a certain blond brawler.

Circe was perusing through a book as usual. By a rough estimate, it looked to be about three-thousand pages; I didn't even know where you can find such a book. Her face showed the kind of focus a neurosurgeon would possess during an operation. I was curious what sort of book it was but I treasured my life enough to not bother her for such trivial reasons.

To put it in a nutshell, everyone in the team was doing pretty much their everyday stuff. A typical weekday of Team BLAC.

The problem was: today was Saturday.

My usually nonexistent leadership senses were tingling, announcing that their actions were unacceptable. The mental faculty that was responsible for fending off boredom agreed to with the assessment. Measures had to be taken.

'This is total bullshit.' My opinion rung out in the room, easily overwhelming the sound of a pencil scribbling or the pages flipping. It caught the girls' attentions, diverting them to me.

'What's wrong, Balty?' Lestia asked, her ever-present smile radiant.

'Today's Saturday is what's wrong. Why are you all working like it's any other day?'

'You make it sound as if we are workaholics, Balthazar. It is nowhere as severe.' Circe pointed out.

'Maybe I'm trying to nip the problem in the bud.' I made my voice imposing as possible; I was not whining. Nope. Definitely imposing and leader-like, not whiney at all.

There was a grin on Lestia's face. 'Are you pouting?' She set the pencil on the table.

'I don't pout,' I wiped whatever expression I was sporting, just in case. 'I just think doing schoolwork on weekends goes against the student's code or something. '

'If such is the case, what is your proposition?' Circe closed her book with a heavy _thump_.

Uhm. I haven't thought that far.

The state of my mind must have been obvious because Lestia offered her suggestion. 'How about we go to the city?'

Her idea wasn't that charming. 'City of Vale? Why would you want to go to that boring ass place for? I know the city like the back of my hand,' I dismissed uninterestedly, 'how about you, Circe? Any suggestions?'

'Perhaps we can visit the school's planetarium? I have yet to reconnoiter the facility.' Lestia and I gawked at her. I didn't know which to be amazed about more; the school for having its own planetarium or Circe for knowing such a place existed. She shrugged at our gaping expressions. 'It was simply an opinion.'

Lestia turned on me. 'So let's hear it, smart guy. Where do you wanna go?'

Hmm. Where to go? Actually, I kind of wanted to see the rematch between Alex and Yang. If I put the two of them in the Coliseum, it was a possibility. 'How about we go visit Tea…' A sense of foreboding flooded through me. At an instinctive level, I perceived that my idea was a disastrous one. Why did I feel such a way?

'Balthazar, is there an issue?' Circe asked.

Right, Circe. Team RWBY had Weiss inside. I have pretty much gotten over my fear of the heiress – she really did not seem to recognize me at all – but that did not mean my friend had. Putting the two girls together would be a calamity worthy of the avatar of destruction. And I almost inadvertently perpetrated it.

Keep your head together, boy. Your goal is to live long, not short.

'Balty, you sure you okay?' Lestia became concerned at my extended silence.

'Ah. Yes. I'm just weighing the options. Nothing wrong at all.' I spoke as nonchalantly as possible.

'So what's your suggestion?'

I blurted out the first thing that came to my mind. 'Uhm. How about we go visit the City of Vale? There ought to be things to see, right?' Lestia looked at me with a startled expression. 'You don't like it?'

She shook her head. 'No, I'm fine with it.'

I grinned. 'That's settled then. Let's call Alex and get going.' The feeling of restlessness was rising in me, now that we had a plan going.

It looked like we were paying a visit to my city.

-x-x-x-x-

City of Vale had been my home for all my life. Considering how blotted my life had been, it wasn't wrong to claim that I had many terrible memories within the city. My fallout with Harmony was one of the milder ones; at least no blood was shed. This was the city I have starved in, was betrayed in, have made regretful mistakes in and had been forced to hide in.

Still, this city was mine. Or more accurately, I was this city's. I knew its beauties, uglies, secrets and mysteries more than most. I may at times loathe it but such emotions never lasted. I was bound to it at a fundamental level.

Plus, it wasn't all bads and none goods. Not all districts were shady; some were quite safe even during the night. I have been to all the districts, although the duration of stay for each district differed significantly, and knew where the noteworthy places were.

Take a look at the restaurant we were in for instance. Named "The Fishy Place", it was right at the tip of residential district, overlooking the point where the river merged. The fish and chips here were fabulous. Disregarding the name – the restaurant's name had been forged decades ago by the current owner's great-grandparents – this shop was superb. I was a regular here and had a good relationship with Montier, the owner.

After getting the rest of the team a table, I went to the counter where Montier resided behind. He recognized me and gave me a wave of welcome.

'Well, if it ain't the little buster. Been awhile since you stepped these floors,' said Montier. 'I see ya brought me some customers. Right nice of ya. Are they the regular sort or them who keeps to themselves?' He was asking whether my friends were thieves or not.

'The regular sort. Just here to get them fed with a proper plate of fish and chips each.'

He raised an eyebrow at the nature of my companions – this was the first time I was here with "regular" people – but did not comment. 'Ah. Right grand.' He yelled into the kitchen. 'Four platters of the standard stuff! Best ingredients!' He returned to me. 'Guess that means ya'll be paying in actual lien this time around?'

I nodded, a smile forming at the question. In the past, when I had been short on money, I have worked out an agreement with Montier to steal the ingredients that went into my food and more as a form of a payment. I always made sure to get him enough to cover whatever profit he would have made for not getting my lien so that both of us stayed satisfied.

'By the way, there is some movements in the undermarket. Ya know anything 'bout it?' Montier whispered in a hushed tone, making sure his words did not carry to wrong ears. The undermarket was a euphemism for the criminal underworld in the city.

'What sorts?' I asked, my curiosity piqued.

'Lots of dusts is what. People are asking for dust. A lot o' dust by a lot o' people.'

I snorted. 'People want dust all the time.' It didn't sound like anything out of ordinary to me.

'This one's different, I assure you. I hear there're plans to hit the pier when the containers of dust arrive in few months' time.'

Wow. That was a substantial amount of dust; enough for an army, one might say. 'You know who's the hitter?'

'Just a bunch o' speculations. No one seems sure…' I could tell he knew something; he was just needed some buttering up.

'Come on, Montier. If you don't know who, then half of the undermarket isn't even aware things are happening.'

He grinned at my compliment. 'Ah, ya little bugger. You talk like I'm the Broker himself.' – the Broker was the best information broker in the city. He wasn't essentially a part of the undermarket; he just had so many contacts within it that even though he was not one of us, he was a well known figure.

'You mean you weren't?' I gasped in mock surprise.

He gave me a whack on the arm – which hurt than I found comfortable – and waved away my praise. 'The man planning is the chap Roman. Heard o' him, yeah? The Torchwhisker fellow. Or was it Torchwhip? Stupid ass name either way.'

Roman Torchwick, eh. If he was involved, the lien involved ought to be huge; Harmony did say the guy didn't sweat with small projects, after all. If this project really was that big, maybe there was still room for me to get myself involved. A little cut from here might be worth more than many jobs previous.

Montier's next question shook me out of my train of thought. 'So ya up for grabs yourself, buster? Gotta be a lotta bucks if all you wolves are smelling at its ass.'

That question returned me to my reality. I had no reason to be excited; I wasn't a thief anymore. No matter the money involved, it wouldn't be worth throwing away what I had going on. 'Nope. I don't have time for that. I'm not a marketman anymore.' Marketman was another euphemism.

There was a brief pause as Montier digested my words. He smiled happily. 'Ah. Became a regular sort yourself, I see.' It was rare for a thief to be able to clean his hand off of the industry. It wasn't just a matter of will; usually circumstances bound us tight to our job and seldom let us free. 'Let me welcome you properly then. The four platters on the house.' As if on cue, our order emerged from the kitchen.

Social etiquette demanded that I decline free offers; they may be just saying that to be polite. However, Montier knew that a I was not the sort to turn away what came my way free of charge. If he offered, it was because he wanted me to accept. He handed me the tray of our food and I received it gratefully.

'Thanks, Montier. I will bring more friends when I have time.' I carried the tray off to where my friends sat.

-x-x-x-x-

Deciding where to go next necessitated another discussion.

It began off with Lestia raising the question. She then insisted that she would really like to go to the weapons store. Alex, Circe and I rejected the idea, agreeing that the notion was too mundane.

Circe then brought up the idea of going to the department store. I thought it was a good idea until Alex interjected. He inquired whether there was a bookstore and I affirmed that there was. Once I did, he outright opposed the suggestion, stating that going to a bookstore with Circe was the swiftest path to mastering patience and self-control. Circe conceded to the truth of his words and withdrew her idea. Still, one look at her face foretold terrible fate in store for the red-haired knight.

Alex brought up the idea of heading to the casino. While it would have been fun, I had people who knew me there and not all of them were my friends. Additionally, I did not want my past occupation to be revealed. I had to shut down the idea, making up plausible lies why going there was a poor idea.

When it was my time to suggest a place, I almost said a dust shop. That would have been downright stupid of me, since all dust shops in the city was supplied by the Schnee Dust Company. Wrecking my brains, I recalled that there was a weapons store in the commercial district which dealt with Arganets Dust Manufacturing. I described the shop and all of us concurred to go there. For some reason though, Lestia smacked me hard in the head when I mentioned the weapons store. I do not comprehend why she did such a thing.

-x-x-x-x-

The shop was named "The Best Defence". Circe took a liking to it immediately; she had a soft spot for word plays. The shop was stocked up with all sorts of weapons and accessories; melee weapons, guns, explosives, collapsible weapon parts and the like. There was a section for armor as well. Customizable jobs were also available if one had the lien to pay for it.

Upon entry, Lestia and Alex separated from us, knowing clearly which section of the store they wanted to be in. That left me with Circe, whose CouP De Grace was less likely to be upgraded here. There were some grenades for sale but I had my own supplier.

Circe strolled without any apparent destination. I followed her since I definitely didn't have any. She inspected the weapons that utilized dust. Her eyes caught a certain grenade launcher. She picked up the weapon, dismantled into in two and looked down its barrel and chamber.

'This is an Arganets-specific weapons,' she commented. There was a question in it; Arganets-specific weapons were rare because it only functioned with Arganets dust. It was incapable of utilizing dust from Schnee Company, the most common type of dust.

'Must be one hell of a launcher.' Everyone knew Arganets dust made more destructive weapons.

'It is indeed capable of vast ruination, if one is willing to risk injury to self,' she replied. It was true; while Arganets dust produced bigger craters, the very same traits made them more volatile, less reliable. The main reason Schnee dust was the predominant form of dust in Remnant was because it was the safest to handle, most suitable for everyday needs.

She reassembled the weapon and returned it on the rack. 'I appreciate your kindness, Balthazar.' She thanked me out of the blue.

'Huh? What for?'

'You selected this store for the precise reason that it conducted business with my company.' Oops. It looked like she figured it out. I shrugged, not knowing how to respond at being caught out.

Her eyes met mine and held them in place. 'While I appreciate the gesture, I would prefer if you desisted with such behaviors from now on. My hostility towards the Schnee is not something I compel you to harbor.'

'Maybe I chose this place because I like here?' I answered. It was a futile attempt, I knew, but I had to try; it's like a formality, really.

'You are not a regular customer here, Balthazar. Some of your grenades feature traits of customization but the owner of this establishment exhibits no evidence of knowing you personally. It is glaringly obvious your wares are purchased elsewhere.'

'Alright, you got me,' I acknowledged. 'Mind telling me why you hate them so much? I feel it's more intense than something between two rival companies.'

'As a matter of fact, I do mind.' She retorted curtly.

'I'm sorry. Not my business.'

She softened slightly. 'Apology accepted. I also apologise for my coarse manner.'

'No, it's okay. Everybody is entitled to hold a grudge. As long as you have the right reason for it.'

At my response, she flashed me one of her rare smiles. To be honest, it stunned me momentarily; Circe's smile was the kind that took breaths away. 'You are a good leader.' She walked away, leaving me alone to collect my disorganized thoughts.

-x-x-x-x-

I looked out the window and realised that the sun was setting; the dusk was approaching. We still had time before the last airship left for Beacon but not by much. I alerted my teammates of the time through my scroll and instructed them to gather by the exit. I reached there first since I wasn't really browsing. One by one, our team returned to full strength. We left The Best Defence, leisurely making our way to the port.

'You guys got anything?' I asked, more to fill the gap in the air then anything.

Alex replied, 'a little something for Pillar.' Lestia and I looked at him blankly. He sighed. 'My mace. It's called Pillar.'

'Ohh.'

'The shield is called Foundation, by the way,' he added.

'Are you upgrading Pillar to beat Yang?' Lestia asked.

He grinned, 'I don't need upgrades to defeat her.'

She disagreed, 'I don't know, she pummeled you hard the last time.'

Alex nodded fondly, reminiscing the battle. 'You misunderstand. Upgrading Pillar won't help me win; It's a matter of fighting style. Goldie's experienced fighting against people with weapons but I haven't gone too much against people like her. I have to adjust how I fight her, not what I fight her with.'

Lestia nodded her understanding. 'Then why did you get upgrades for your mace?'

'Ah. It's a little precaution against somebody even stronger.'

'You're planning to fight against teachers?' I asked in surprise.

He shook his head. 'No, I mean among the first years, there's somebody who should be stronger than Yang.'

Circe seemed to understand. 'You noticed she was in the Academy.'

'Hard to not to; she's pretty damn gorgeous.'

'Hey, care to explain to the mere peasants?' Lestia grumbled.

Alex smirked. 'Secret. I need as many advantages as I can get.'

'Aww, you're no fun,' the green haired girl bemoaned.

'Well, I could sell it for a kiss.'

I expected her to protest at his outrageous offer, maybe give him a punch. Instead, she seemed to be contemplating. Woah. She's not serious considering the offer, was she? The idea didn't sit too comfortable with me.

Before she could respond to his business proposal though, a window of a nearby building shattered and a cloaked figure launched through onto the pavement ahead.

'Help! A thief!' came from within the premise.

The hooded figure shot a brief glance back at the shop and then noticed us. He flinched momentarily before dashing off in the opposite direction as fast as his leg could carry him.

'After him!' Lestia yelled.

'What? Why?' This wasn't our business. We were not beholden to chase criminals; that was what the police was paid to do.

My partner looked at me disapprovingly. 'Balthazar, he's a thief! We need to help the poor store keeper. It's our duty as hunters.'

Alex supported her stance. 'The shopkeeper isn't gonna catch him, that's for sure. We should get that filthy thief and teach him a lesson.' I felt a flare of anger at his words but pressed down hard on the emotion. I was not a thief. Not anymore.

'What is your order?' Circe asked.

If I was going to be a huntsman, apprehending thieves like him would soon become my job. Catching him and returning the stolen goods to the rightful owner was the correct thing to do.

'Let's get him.'

Why did the words leave such a bad taste in my mouth?

I suppressed the treacherous thought down; there was a job to do and no room for second guesses. The thief had moved off faster than an average person so I needed to act fast or I would lose him. I analysed my options. A plan of sorts formed. 'Lestia, go after him. For now, keep him in sight. Don't lose him. Constantly report your surroundings through your scroll.'

Lestia saluted, 'aye, aye. Captain.' She blitzed away at incredible speed.

Going through the files in my scroll, I found what I was looking for. I sent it to Alex. 'Alex, I sent you a map of this district. Memorize, then work with Lestia to keep him away from entering the residential district. Don't let him enter there; that's where thieves get rid of their tails.'

Alex took one look at his scroll, muttered, 'done,' and went off in the direction of the other two.

'What of us, Balthazar?' With a task at hand, Circe's severe expression has returned.

'We're gonna be the welcoming committee.'

-x-x-x-x-

'_Lestia, he's trying to lose me by going up that rooftop. Be there and show him it's a bad idea.'_

'_Sure, Alex. Woooah. Did he seriously jump that?'_

'_You can do that with eyes closed.'_

'_Yeah, but he's not me. Well, it was flashy but it ain't gonna do him much. I can still see him.'_

'_Make sure he sees you; that's what's important. Right, he just turned left. He's going for the bridge at the end of the road.'_

'_I see it. I guess you want me to cut him off?'_

'_You are a genius, Lestia. Got it in one.'_

'_Wheeee. Man, this is awesome. I didn't know running on rooftops were this thrilling.'_

'_You there yet? We are inbound any moment.'_

'_Yup, yup. Just reached. I think I can see the two of you over there.'_

'_I think our friend saw you. He just changed his route.'_

'_Righto. Back to the rooftops for me. Oh hey, he just went into that dirty looking purple building over there.'_

'_I saw. There's should be an exit on the roof and a backdoor. Can you watch those two for awhile? I'm going to go around.'_

'_Why not just go through it?'_

'_Well, according to the map, that's an abandoned strip club. I'm not gonna go in there unless you paid me.'_

I knew I should maintain radio silence but couldn't resist, 'so you like being paid in strip clubs, Alex?' Lestia's laughter filled the channel. Circe silently snuck a giggle by my side.

Alex's strained voice came through the channel. _'That's not cool, Balthazar. It was good but not cool.'_

'Maybe it's my subtle way of telling you to keep radio chatter to minimum.'

'_Or maybe it's your subtle way of asking me to bump up our combat training difficulty.'_

I would have retorted if it was not for Lestia's urgent cry. _'Horseshit! He shot something at me.'_

'Are you hurt?'

'_No. He didn't hit me. It's making a lot of smoke though. Hold on.' _A gunshot echoed through the channel. _'Right, I'm out. I see the rascal. He's making for the alley between the… "Little Grocer" and "Arms Are Us."'_

'_There's an underpass to the residential district by that path three blocks down. Go block there. I'll keep chasing him.' _Alex instructed.

'_Okay.' _The comms went dead for now.

Circe took a glimpse into my scroll to check the map. 'You were correct. He is indeed approaching this location.'

'Like I said, I know this city like the back of my hand.' I had to, or else I would have been arrested or killed years ago. 'Looks like our guest's coming; it's time for the welcome ceremony. You fine on your own?'

'I am a huntress, Balthazar.' She answered with a frown.

I shrugged. 'Just asking.'

'I am certain I can manage in your absence.'

'Right. See ya later.' I spoke to Alex. 'Alex. You ready to lure him in?'

'_He's like a dog on a leash, boss; going exactly where we want him.'_

I arrived at the narrow alley my teammates were luring the thief to. There was an entrance to the sewers running under this district around here. The sewer was a good method to lose anyone who was not familiar with its layout. Although the odor made it less than desirable to enter, if one was desperate enough, he would still use it.

Lestia reported, _'He's off. Got scared as hell when he saw me here. Screamed like a little girl. Going your way, Balty.'_

'Can't you at least try to sound professional, Lestia?'

'_For what? I'm not a professional.' _

Patter of footsteps echoed off the walls of the narrow street as my quarry approached. I silenced my scroll and stored it away, ensuring its noise or light would not give my presence away. I kept in the shadows, hoping it would not be necessary for me to step out.

As I predicted, the fugitive stopped at the divide before the sewer. He was judging his situation, weighing whether a venture through the city's refuse was necessary for his escape; like I said, the sewers reeked tremendously. If he did take that path, he probably would need to throw away his clothing and it was a decent bet he did not have many to spare, if any.

He turned away from the sewers, coming my way. It looked like he still believed escape possible without going through the tunnels of muck and filth. My role in this hunt was to dissuade such line of thought. Sigh. I had hoped direct intervention wasn't necessary.

I brandished Fiasco. 'Freeze! Hands where I can fucking see them, twerp. Funny moves and I shoot!' I made myself visible, walking into a tiny spot of light. I kept my tone slightly higher than usual so as to appear nervous. The idea was to make myself look like a person easy to get away from but potentially hazardous to overpower. A nervous, trigger-happy law enforcer fitted that role just right.

He obeyed, slowly raising his hands. Aw, crap. It would be troublesome if he just surrendered now. You might think that would be the most ideal scenario; except I did not have anything to immobilize him short of using my grenades. Hmm. I needed to encourage him to flee so that he proceeded to our trap.

'I'm gonna give you three counts, pal. Take out everything you stole or I brain you, 'kay?' I inserted fake bravado into my voice – the irony of faking a fake bravado was not lost on me – and began counting.

'One.' He put his hands into the folds of his cloak. The swash of the material revealed a tail underneath. A faunus? The tail disappeared as abruptly as it had appeared, to an extent I was unsure whether it had been there at all. Was there really a tail?

Due to my distraction, I forgot to count down. The thief was observant enough to pick up on my state of confusion and did not waste the opportunity. He took out his threatening… slingshot? He pulled back the pouch and loosed a shot.

You know, if you were to look at it in one way, you might say I was lucky. I needed to convincingly be caught off guard, making him believe he escaped to the sewers on his own accord. My genuine surprise at his tail did that job splendidly. However, when you are covered with the revolting smell of a stink bomb, you forget to appreciate such little things in life.

'You little shit!' I bellowed, coughing on the pungent atmosphere. For Remnant's sake, this stuff was nasty; I think there was boarbatusk excrement mixed in the recipe. Well, two can play the same game. I primed a grenade and tossed it at the entrance to the sewers. Upon its detonation, a cloud of gas filled the area. I hoped the bastard was caught in the blast. My tear gas grenade could really ruin somebody's day.

As the gas slowly began spreading to the surroundings, I made myself elsewhere. The stink bomb was bad enough; I did not want to know what the concoction of the two gases would do to my senses. I considered my next course of action. Hmm. The chase was entering its last stage. Originally, I had planned to rejoin Circe and watch the finale. However, that was before I smelt like the love child of swamp monster and decay demon. Not only was I unwilling to reunite with her in such a state, there was a real chance the thief might become aware of my presence at the sewer's exit if he actually was a faunus and had great olfactory capability.

What to do, what to do?

Well, there was a way to get rid of the stench. It's just that I really did not want to do that to myself.

-x-x-x-x-

'He ought to be coming out any time now,' I growled, 'In fact, he's late.' The sewers may be roundabout but they weren't THAT roundabout.

'Regain your calm, Balthazar. Recall your advice to Lestia: be professional,' Circe instructed.

'Touche,' I replied. 'The little prick forced me to use a grenade on myself; I'm done being professional.'

'I confess; I was unaware electrical grenades could be used as a makeshift deodorant.' I could have sworn Circe was suppressing her laughter.

'The energy ionizes the particles and does some scientific voodoo on the smell; it stings like rapier wasps though. I learned this on a little adventure with Har… a friend of mine.' Oops, I almost revealed too much.

'I see.' Aw, crap. She had definitely noticed the mid-switch. Fortunately, the annoying bugger decided to emerge from the sewers at that moment, granting me a perfect chance distract the huntress.

'The shithead is here. Go break a leg; preferably his.' Circe rolled her eyes at my animosity. After that, all trace of emotion was erased from her placid, neutral expression. There was a job to be performed; time for small talk was past. She needed all her concentration for her semblance.

Circe's semblance was, in my opinion, the most versatile out of the four of us. Unlike mine, which could only be used to destroy, hers could be used to set up the environment in her favor. Unlike Alex's which only applied to himself, hers could be used to affect others directly.

She called her semblance "Link". Her semblance allowed her to create a line of connection between two points. A Link could be given physical properties if desired but otherwise did not. During initiation, she had created a Link between herself and Alex, allowing them to be aware of each other's whereabouts upon landing without difficulty. They could also become makeshift rope if required. Her Links were how we got past the demolished bridge ruin at the bottom of the cliff.

Her Links had their own downsides, of course. It was rather easy to shatter a Link; it was flimsy on its own, just like a string. The farther the distance between the two points, harder it was for her to maintain the Link. More Links she kept online at one instance, less stable they were, prone to snapping at slightest lapse in her concentration. All in all, they were not all that useful in a quick-paced fight. Just as malfunction had its own conditions, Link came with its own set of rules.

With enough time to prepare, however, Circe could lay out enough Links to form an impenetrable net over an area – not dissimilar to a spider's web. The exit of the sewer was rather enclosed and walled in by tall buildings. It was the perfect place for a snare.

The Links were currently invisible and intangible; their characteristics morphed depending on Circe's will. Once the thief entered amidst the thick of it, she would solidify them and capture him. I could see her on the ground from my vantage point, waiting for the thief to walk in.

Of course, if everything went according to plan, things would be too easy, wouldn't it? Fortune must have been bored, for she chose to butt into my affairs again. The thief stopped just short of the net as if somehow he sensed it and produced a coiled rope with a grapple hook attached from the folds of his cloak.

An understanding dawned on me. So it had not been a tail; it had been the rope wrapped around his stomach. He wasn't a faunus, after all. In fact, now that I thought about it, it should have been obvious. Firstly, I had been able to sneak upon him under the cover of darkness. A faunus wouldn't have been caught off like that unless he was blind. Another clue should have been the stink bomb. No faunus used a such weapon, not with their superior sense of smell.

While discovery about the enemy was good and fulfilling, the addition of the rope to the current equation was not. With a rope, he could just climb out of the harm's way by scaling up the nearest building. This new development forced Circe's hand.

She shot a couple more Links and dragged his arm down. The guy dropped the grapple hook in surprise. He struggled and tried to break free. It was futile, however; Circe continuously reinforced the Links so that they won't break. Slowly, the Link chain pulled its prey towards the web, which was now tangible.

When I said slowly, I meant extremely slowly. It seemed the mental upkeep of maintaining all these Links – there was at least half a thousand of them from what I could see – was pushing Circe to her limits. Quite literally, anything could shatter her concentration at this point. I frowned. I wanted to tell her to let go of about half of them – five hundred for just one thief felt like overkill – but I could not for the fear of breaking her focus. All I could do was pray that everything went according to plan.

Well, if I say something like that, you know it isn't going to.

The thief seemed to have come to terms that he wasn't going to force his freedom. He switched tactics. He took out his slingshot and let loose a round at Circe's feet. Acting on instinct, I cover my ears and shut my eyes. It paid off; the pellet exploded with a giant _bang_ and presumably a flash of light.

How did I know he was using that? Well, if I was caught in a giant web of rope put together by someone's will, I would have gone for its creator as well. I would need something that had instant effect of disabling my opponent, although preferably non-lethal. The optimal candidate for such an effect was a stun grenade.

While his bomb was nowhere as strong as the ones I carried, to Circe it was more than enough. She collapsed with a scream; all her Links banished immediately. Aw, shit. I needed to get there. I dashed towards the two, meanwhile equipping my shades and miniature gas mask. I did not have the luxury of being knocked out at this moment.

He was approaching her. Maybe he was just checking to see if she was alright, maybe he wasn't. I wasn't going to take any chances. I took out Fiasco and replaced its blanks with a live round. 'Stay away from the girl, you bastard,' I warned, my voice quite distorted by the mask. Fiasco was aimed at his chest.

He fell back at the sight of me. He raised his arms. I wondered whether he recognized me; it didn't matter though.

'Drop the slingshot and kick it to the side.' He hesitated momentarily but complied eventually.

Now that I had him, I noticed just how short the thief was. I am not tall myself but I was at least a head taller than him. He must be just a kid. Well, that didn't mean I was going to let my guard down.

I needed to make sure he had no more concealed weapons. 'Go to the wall and place your hands. Legs shoulder length apart.' If you want to pat somebody down, make sure you are not in their sight. It was less risky that way. I removed the cloak with one hand, the other pointing Fiasco to his back. Then I had my shock of the day.

Turns out that the thief was a girl.

Don't get me wrong; it's not like upon discovery of her gender, I began to apologize for all the trouble I put her through or anything. I still trained my gun on her and watched for any sudden movements; I knew better than to assume girls were less dangerous than guys. Still, the notion of searching her down was now awfully discomfiting, especially so since she was a couple years younger than me.

Serendipitously, she kept most of her gears in the cloak – a stupid decision from a professional point of view, since it meant losing her cloak results in loss of many of her gears, but I wasn't going to complain. Without a word, I rummaged its pockets. A pair of makeshift daggers, a box full of pellets for her slingshot, a worn down key and a few packets of sandwiches. The sandwich packs looked crumbled but relatively new; they must be the stolen merchandise.

Food. She was stealing food. Only the most desperate stole right from the shops instead of robbing the warehouses. I began noticing how frail she looked, how torn her clothes were. She had wrappings for her feet, not being able to afford any footwear. Her back was caked with a thin layer of dirt, meaning she slept on the ground instead of having a shelter to her name.

The sight of her stirred memories from the past.

I can't do this.

Getting her arrested wouldn't improve her situation; it would just get her marked by the police, making it harder for her to get by. I had to let her go.

But was simply letting her go the best solution? She might get scot-free today but her luck wouldn't last forever. I wanted to help her, not extend her misery. I wanted to be the person I had always wished for during my own street urchin days: a person to rescue me from the starvation and terror.

The question was how? I was a thief no longer. I was not part of the undermarket anymore. She was still within its grasp. I was just a student in the Beacon Academy, busy getting through my own affairs. How do I save her? I needed to be realistic.

A thought clicked.

I put the cloak back on her. She yelped at my sudden touch but upon realizing what I was doing, did not resist. I briefly checked on Circe, found her still unconscious – I needed to examine her soon. Having no danger of being overheard, I addressed my captive. 'Turn around. We're gonna have a little chat.' She obeyed, her eyes full of suspicion.

'Originally, I was going to hand you over to the police but you seem quite capable. It would be a shame to let you rot in prison.' Her eyes widened, filling with hope at my words.

'I will let you go on one condition.' Suspicion returned in full force.

'I need you to contact a person called Harmony.' She perked up at that; she had heard of her.

'Go to The Fishy Place in the residential district, talk to the owner there. Tell him you have a message for Harmony. Stick around the area for a couple of days and she will contact you.' I took out my memento ring of twisted wires from my pocket and tossed it to her.

'When she does, give her this and tell her "Breaker got replaced." She knows what I'm talking about.' She nodded but it was plain she still did not trust me. I didn't blame her; I wouldn't have trusted me if I was in her place.

I gritted my teeth. I needed to ensure she followed my instruction. If I let her go now, there was a good chance she would just count her blessings and not adhere to our bargain.

I hardened my resolve.

I stepped close to her, held her by her neck and pushed her against the wall. 'Listen here, you shit. When I ask you a question, you reply with "yes, sir". Do I make myself crystal?'

I saw the fear settle in her eyes and hated myself for it. 'Ye… yes, sir,' she whimpered.

'What do you do once I let you go?'

'De… deliver your message, sir.'

'At where?'

'The Fishy Place, sir. In the residential district.' She sniffed back her tears.

Oh god, I couldn't keep this up much longer. 'Go. I expect Harmony's reply in two weeks. If it doesn't arrive, I'm coming for you. I never forget a face.' I snarled and released her. She dropped to the floor, her knees weak.

Realising that she was dismissed, she rushed to gather her equipment and then depart, eager to get away. I kept my grim expression until she was out of sight. When Harmony received my message, she would figure out my intention. In the very least, she would teach the girl our trade so that she can support herself better. My hope was that my ex-partner would take her in, sponsoring her until she can be autonomous.

My mouth tasted awfully bitter. Was all that worth it? If it saved the girl from a life in the streets or brothels, it would be. Still, I felt despicable. It was as if being in this city was bringing out the old me; the worse side of me.

I brought my mind to my team. Circe needed to be attended to and Lestia and Alex needed to be contacted. Circe first. I shook her gently. 'Circe. Wake up.' Weakly, she stirred with a groan. It looked like she wasn't too badly affected. Then she threw up to the ground by her side. Yikes.

-x-x-x-x-

'So after all that, we lost him?' Alex asked incredulously.

'Yes, Alex. I apologise for my blunder,' Circe replied. She was being carried by Alex, being too disoriented to walk. She was dozing off in his arms, clearly exhausted.

'At least it was a blast. We should do this more often.' Lestia grinned delightedly.

'We are never doing this again.' I rebutted firmly.

'Don't be such a wet blanket, Balty,' said Lestia.

'No, I'm serious. The next time we see a thief on our way back to…' I ceased mid-sentence.

'Boss? Something wrong?' Alex inquired.

'For Remnant's sake, I completely forgot!' I yelled.

'What's the matter?' The three of them looked at me.

'We freaking missed the last ride to Beacon! We're stuck here till tomorrow!' I lamented.

And that's how the Team BLAC's first outing concluded itself.

-x-x-x-x-

**AN: This chapter was longer than any of the previous chpts (I guess I'm still keeping that particular trend) and that's after a drastic cut down of content. I realised after the previous chpt that it's much better to give proper, high quality content instead of giving a lot of it.**

**Upon this elucidating realization, I decided that revisions of previous chpts would be in order. I don't know when, mind you. I don't know when I have free time. But I will do it, for humanity, if nothing else.**

**On a side note, I am learning that I need a lot of character ideas. You can't just have a select few and assume that they are all you need till the end of story. If you happen to have any you would like to share, please do. Assist me in this time of crisis.**

**If you have anything to say, do say. I like communication.**

**Finally, I hope you enjoyed this chpt. Ciao.**


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